Massively Screwed Up
by ZakoBattledroid
Summary: Mega crossover between Star Wars, Mass Effect, Halo, Oddworld, Aliens vs. Predator, Dead Space, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. A galaxy bursting at the seams with violence is on the verge of collapse when three ponies are teleported there. They manage to befriend a group of misfits but can the power of friendship save them from the horrors that await? Probably not.
1. A Very Dangerous Place

**Massively Screwed Up**

**Chapter 1: A Very Dangerous Place**

The planet Maji was located in the Vamshi system of the Armstrong nebula. It was a desolate world only notable for its occasional deposits of magnesium, beryllium and thorium. None of the major galactic governments gave Maji a second thought. The Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic were too busy fighting each other in a bloody war to worry about obscure planets with only average resources. The various governments that composed the Citadel were too busy recovering from the recent attack by the geth on their colossal space station that served as their seat of government. That left Maji in the hands of mercenary and pirate gangs. None of the unsavory groups had the will or equipment to set up large-scale mining operations. They used the red planet for entertainment: they would dump hostages, prisoners, slaves, fellow shipmates, and even vicious animals onto the surface of the world and force them to kill each other. If the victor was lucky they would be retrieved from the radiated surface.

Tali'Zorah vas Neema had not been dumped on the world to engage in blood sport for the amusement of others. The quarian had chosen to come to the planet of her own free will. She had come to hunt geth. Tali had been to this particular planet before. The last time she was here she was under the command of the legendary Jane Shepard. Shepard's small squad had decimated a minor geth outpost that stained the red planet. With the hard fighting done the Systems Alliance had promised that they would increase patrols in the Armstrong nebula to deter future geth activity in the region, but that turned out to be one of many hollow promises they had made to the now-deceased Shepard.

Barely a galactic standard month after Tali's original skirmish on Maji and the geth were already sneaking around the Armstrong nebula once again. The geth were not difficult to find, they did have flashlight heads. Though the Systems Alliance and the rest of the Citadel were more than willing to turn a blind eye to the situation. They had more pressing concerns other than a small cluster of geth that were hanging around on the wrong side of the Perseus Veil. However, the quarians of the Migrant Fleet were very interested in what the geth were doing.

Tali and her squad had been sent on a mission to collect geth components for Tali's father, Admiral Rael'Zorah. In order to acquire geth components Tali would have to go hunting for geth, and that was something that she had quite a bit of experience doing. Tali'Zorah was more than happy to be destroying geth. The synthetics had been built by her people long ago. Three hundred years ago, the geth rebelled against their creators and the quarians lost the resulting war. The quarians had lost their homeworld and all their colonies to the geth and ended up wandering the stars in a space fleet.

Tali held a firm grip on her M-3 predator pistol as she hid behind an odd skull. It was the skull of some fearsome looking animal, though Tali had no idea what it was. It was full of teeth and full of holes. Likely it was some creature that the mercenary or pirate gangs had dumped on the planet some time ago.

"Tali, move up," an order came in over the radio.

"Got it." Tali sprinted out of cover and made a mad dash for a large bolder that had previously only been a dot in her vision. She slowed down as she neared her mark; ending in a lazy trot by the time she reached the large rock.

Tali waited patiently behind the boulder for several moments until a squad of geth finally passed by. Four standard geth troopers formed a tight group around a rocket trooper with a geth shock trooper up in the front. A geth sniper was trailing slightly behind the frontline foot soldiers. It was easy enough to distinguish the roles of the geth infantry. Standard geth troopers were coated in a dull lavender armor. The tougher geth shock troopers had white armor. Geth rocket troopers were painted in red. Geth snipers were a dim brown that helped them blend in with a variety of backgrounds on countless worlds. Overall the geth squad blended into their crimson surroundings quite well, with the exception of the shock trooper. Each of the geth's heads contained a single large eye that looked like a flashlight. They seemed to be carefully scanning their surroundings as if they were expecting quarians to jump out at any moment and attack them.

Further ahead of the geth another quarian hid amongst rocks of various shapes and sizes. Lena'Xel was around Tali's age. Both of the quarians had only recently completed their Pilgrimage. While one would assume such young quarians lacked substantial combat experience, nothing was further from the truth. Tali'Zorah was known as a hero that had helped Commander Shepard take down the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. Lena'Xel was known for having stopped a group of Blood Pack mercenaries from kidnapping a small freighter full of quarians.

Lena'Xel wielded a M-100 grenade launcher in her hands. Lena wore light colossus armor. The black suit coupled with a red faceplate made her appear quite malicious, especially against the backdrop of the red planet. Tali hadn't known Lena for very long but at the moment she just hoped her teammate's aim was good.

The radio cackled to life again. "Wait for it… Wait for it… Now!" All at once the planet was treated to a scene of violence. A single grenade from Lena's launcher found its way into the center of the geth squad.

The geth voiced their surprise with the usual stuttering sounds that they made. The shock trooper managed to escape the initial blast intact, only to be riddled with fire from an M-8 avenger assault rifle.

Tali popped out of cover and let her predator pistol find the geth sniper's head. The first trio of shots was carefully aimed, but the rest was just wild fire as Tali emptied an entire clip at the sniper. Luckily, the geth still fell.

Only two geth remained: the rocket trooper and one of the standard troopers. It was a miracle the rocket trooper was still standing as it took the brunt of the first grenade. The red geth let loose a rocket in Tali's direction, impacting on the ground and knocking the quarian off her feet.

The remaining geth trooper was badly damaged and struggled just to stay on its feet. It was able to aim its pulse rifle and send a flurry of shots from where the M-8 avenger attack had come from.

Another grenade from the launcher was forthcoming and the two geth were put down for good.

"Eat that you bosh'tets!" Lena yelled at the smoldering piles of scrap metal.

"Watch it Lena! You feed them too many grenades and there won't be anything left to salvage." A male quarian in white armor with black highlights appeared from a cluster of rocks where the assault rifle fire had previously emanated from. It was Penn'Norek, the leader of their small squad.

Tali scanned the area. "We're clear," she told the other two as she trotted over to the heap of smoking geth parts.

"Don't get mad at me. They didn't wanna die. I _had_ to give them a little convincing. Overkill is better than one of us getting a suit rupture from not putting these monsters down fast enough."

"Alright," Penn conceded. "Let's just see if there's anything usable left."

The three quarians picked through the remains of the geth. Most of the parts they chose came from the trooper and rocket trooper that were the last to fall in the battle. All the while they were working Penn and Lena conversed about a variety of topics ranging from quarian politics to wondering what the volus looked like underneath their pressure suits. Tali was relatively quiet compared with the other two.

Even though Tali was now among her own people, she couldn't help but feel alone and isolated. She missed the old familiar faces that she had worked with for so long while aboard the _Normandy_: Commander Shepard, Navigator Pressly, Engineer Adams, Dr. Chakwas, the Alliance Requisitions Officer…she forgot what his name was though it didn't matter much since he had died in the attack on the _Normandy_.

Tali didn't know why she found it difficult to find her voice around Penn and Lena. Perhaps Tali had spent too much time with non-quarians. Or just Penn and Lena were motor mouths that wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. She wasn't sure.

The quarians returned to their ship with their prizes. The _Ebon Hawk_ was an ancient _Dynamic_-class freighter that Penn had won in a game of sabacc. It was not usual for a _Dynamic_-class freighter to be seen flying across the Galaxy. Only the most hardcore of historic starship collectors would own one. If an individual wanted a Dynamic freighter of their own, their only chance would be to scrounge around the scrap yards of Raxus Prime for untold years (or win it gambling against a ship collector like Penn had). The ship model was nearly four thousand years old. The quarians were scavengers and skilled at repairing spaceships, though even by their standards having a nearly four thousand year old ship still in working order was something to be proud of. It certainly gave Penn a great deal of bragging rights and was a boon when trying to court quarian women.

Once the ship was loaded with the choice parts, Lena started back out into the crimson background that was Maji. "Come on, let's go get more parts."

"I don't think any of the other pieces are even worth taking," Penn went after the other quarian. Tali stood near the loading ramp and merely watched the other two. In their original plan they were making only one trip to the ship.

"Why don't we let Admiral Rael'Zorah an the others decide what is and isn't valuable?"

"We're on a timed mission here," Penn protested.

"No we're not."

"I'm not willing to risk more geth showing up as we drag our feet getting more parts that probably aren't even worth it."

"I'll take care of them just like I did with the first group. Bring 'em on!" Just as Lena had finished her declaration there was an enormous thumping sound.

A geth dropship had come in fast and low and had just dropped in a geth armature followed by four geth troopers. Without delay Penn and Lena were running for the _Ebon Hawk_. The stuttering noises the geth made sounded angry.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Penn jeered as they ran for their lives.

Tali had run up the loading ramp and came back out wielding a ML-77 missile launcher. She fired several missiles at the dropship to deter it from attacking the _Ebon Hawk_ while it was parked.

"Move it! We gotta go!" Penn said as they reached the ship. Tali followed Penn and Lena up the loading ramp. The geth troopers and armature fired at the freighter as it roared to life and lifted into the sky.

Once the _Ebon Hawk_ had reached the upper atmosphere the quarians appeared to be in the clear. Geth dropships weren't exactly effective at combating other starships and there appeared to be no geth fighters on the way to incept them.

"That was close." Lena breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, you just had to say that didn't you? You need to be careful what you wish for." Penn started setting in the hyperspace coordinates.

"Yeah, because the geth wouldn't have shown up if I hadn't said "bring 'em on."" Lena was irritated. Penn had already mentioned her unfortunate choice of words when they were running from the geth on Maji. She didn't need to be reminded of it again.

"That's how it generally works, yes?" Penn asked.

Tali was quiet as the ship took them to the safety of hyperspace. When everything was set the three quarians went about their separate tasks on the ship. Tali was classifying and cataloging the geth parts they had taken. Lena was cleaning and reloading the grenade launcher and missile launcher that had been used in the fighting. Penn stayed in the cockpit and kept an eye on the old freighter.

Even though the quarians were away from Maji's radioactive environment, they still don't take off their suits. Quarians were known for their weak immune systems, which were only made even weaker over time due to living on the sterile environment of the Flotilla. Quarians never took off their suits. Their suits protected them from germs their bodies couldn't handle. Their weak immune systems were what was keeping the quarians stuck as space nomads. It would be a lengthy and painful process to acclimatize to a new world. The quarians had yet to start a new colony world, for three hundred years that had been flying around space focused on taking their homeworld back. Only time would tell if they would ever get their planet back. It seemed unlikely to happen in the near future. The Citadel, Confederacy and Republic all appeared to be content with leaving the geth alone as long as they stayed to the former quarian planets. If the quarians were going to retake the homeworld they would have to do it themselves. It didn't seem like much but Tali hoped their mission on Maji was at least a step in the right direction.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The title of the chapter, A Very Dangerous Place, is named after one of the tracks from the Mass Effect: Original Soundtrack. A Very Dangerous Place is one of the standard planet exploring tracks for the game.

The planet Maji appeared in Mass Effect. The odd skull that appears in the chapter is on Maji in the game.

Tali'Zorah is a squad member from the three Mass Effect games. Penn'Norek and Lena'Xel are OCs.

The description of the geth is based off their appearance in the original Mass Effect game. The standard geth troopers keep having their armor color changed in each game of the trilogy. Geth shock troopers, snipers and standard armatures only appear in the first Mass Effect. Geth rocket troopers appear red in the first and second games, but change in the third. I just decided to go with their appearance from the original game for this story.

The _Ebon Hawk_ appeared in the Star Wars videogames Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.


	2. Bad Dreams

**Chapter 2: Bad Dreams**

A Lockmart-Starclub light intrasystem shuttle drifted through the uncaring void of space. The old shuttle had been drifting for a long time, oblivious to the chaos that the Galaxy had been enduring.

The shuttle would have gone on forever if not for the chance that it just happened to coast into range of a small fleet of Separatist warships: a Lucrehulk droid control ship protected by six _Munificent_-class star frigates. Munificent star frigates were large vessels that measured 825 meters in length, though they were nothing compared to the massive 3,170-meter long Lucrehulk ship.

The shuttle sprang to life and set off a proximity alert as if to prove to itself that it was still functional. The alert changed nothing. A tractor beam pulled the sleepy shuttle into one of the many hangars of the _Lucrehulk_-class droid control ship. Several security battle droids and PK worker droids watched as the old shuttle set down on the pristine hangar floor. The security droids rushed to take up guard positions around the shuttle while the worker droids went back to their assigned tasks.

A bright light shown through the window as a security battle droid peered into the shuttle. The battle droids were cheap and were equipped with off-the-rack photoreceptors. Their vision was no different than a human's. If they wanted to see in the dark they needed to have floodlights on top of their heads.

"Get this door open," the security droid turned around and addressed a pilot battle droid that was approaching. It was easy to tell pilot and security droids apart from one another. Pilot battle droids had blue markings on their chest and shoulders while security battle droids had maroon markings.

"Roger roger," the pilot droid answered with a common preprogrammed response.

The pilot battle droid started cutting into the door with a F-187 fusioncutter. After a few moments the door fell inward.

Two security battle droids walk in, weapons held at the ready. They looked like skeletal harbingers of death come to take away any they found in the frosty darkness. The floodlights on their heads cast a light over the dim interior of the ship. The shadowy interior gave off a mood of cold and death.

"No hostiles detected," one of the droids announced.

The other security droid walked over to the cryo tubes. The droid wiped his metal hand over the cryo chamber and discovered that there was a human and a cat still inside.

"We have two life forms in cryogenic stasis over here." The security droid quickly checked the tube's control readout for a moment.

"One human and one Earth-class housecat. Bio-readouts are stable. They're alive. Notify the commander."

"Roger roger."

* * *

"Why is it taking so long to identify that shuttle?" Commander Vulpus demanded. The human CIS officer had other things to worry about besides some dead shuttle drifting through space, things such as the Jedi Order and the Grand Army of the Republic.

"Unknown sir," the pilot battle droid sitting at the computer console responded. "The…" the droid stopped for a moment as the computer screen displayed the answer they were looking for, "This is the _Narcissus_. This shuttle has been missing for fifty-seven years. That's why it took the computer so long go through the records."

"Whom does it belong to?" Vulpus asked.

"The Weyland-Yutani Corporation."

"Weyland-Yutani? That corporation based off of Earth?"

"Yes sir."

Commander Vulpus realized that if the shuttle had been missing for fifty-seven years, then it had disappeared before the Earth humans had even made contact with the rest of galactic society. It was amazing that someone had bothered to take the time to update galactic records to include missing ships from Earth humans before they were introduced to galactic society.

Another battle droid came in. "Commander."

"Yes, what is it?"

"There are two life forms onboard the shuttle. One human female and one Earth-class housecat. They are both in cryogenic stasis in a single cryo tube. Readouts show they are still alive."

"Unload their cryo tube off the shuttle and take them to medical. Don't unfreeze them just yet."

"Roger roger." The battle droid turned and left to carry out his task.

Commander Vulpus would have to contact his superiors and set up a meeting with representatives from the Systems Alliance. In the meantime Vulpus did not want the human wandering around suffering from future shock. Vulpus was human, but it would be tiresome if the human female started freaking out if she ran into a neimoidian technician or found the legions of battle droids disturbing. For the time being it would be better to keep her frozen and let her own people deal with her.

* * *

Ellen Ripley awoke. Her memory was hazy but she knew enough that she was safe, at least for the time being.

"How are we today?" a nurse asked.

"Terrible," Ripley groaned. She sat up in her bed. She was in some sort of medical ward. The walls were so blazingly white it almost hurt her eyes.

"Better than yesterday at least."

"Where am I?"

"You're safe. You're at Gateway Station. Been here for a couple of days. You were groggy at first, but now you're okay. Oh, looks like you've got a visitor."

A man in a suit came through the door, a familiar orange cat in his arms. The man handed the ginger tom over to Ripley.

"Jonesy, come here. Hey, come here, how are you? You stupid cat. How are you? Where have you been?" Ripley gave the cat a kiss on the head.

"Guess you two have met, huh?" the man said. "I'm Burke. Carter Burke. I work for the company. But don't let that fool you; I'm really an okay guy. I'm glad to see you're feeling a little better. They tell me that all the weakness and disorientation should pass soon and that's just naturally occurring side effects of such a long hypersleep. Or something like that."

"What do you mean? How long was I out there?"

"Has no one discussed this with you yet?"

"No. But I mean I don't recognize this place."

"No, I know…uhh…okay…it's just that…this might be a shock to you. It's been a long… "

"How long?" Ripley demanded. "Please."

"Fifty-seven years."

"What?" At first this Gateway Station the nurse mentioned earlier didn't ring a bell to Ripley. Then she suddenly remembered that the space station was just starting construction when she had left for her job on the _Nostromo_.

"That's the thing. You were out there for fifty-seven years. What happened was you had drifted right through the colony systems. And it's really just blind luck that a ship found you when they did. It's one in a thousand really. I think you're damn lucky to be alive, kiddo. You could be floating around there forever."

Ripley started breathing heavily. Carter's words started to fade into the background.

"Ripley, you okay?"

Ripley could hear her heart pounding in her head. Jones hissed and jumped off her. Ripley looked like you was about to hurl chunks.

"You okay?" Burke had no idea what was wrong. Jones ran and hid behind some medical equipment. Carter Burke was clueless but Jones knew what was going on.

Time slowed to a deadening crawl. "Oh god!" Ripley started to go into convulsions.

"Nurse! Please! Someone get in here now! Now!"

The doctor and nurse ran in. They tried to restrain Ripley but she continued to fail about.

"No!" There was nothing the medical staff could do as an alien burst through Ripley's chest.

"No!" Ripley awoke from her dream.

"Bad dreams again? You want something to help you sleep?" The screen next to Ripley's bed sprung to life.

"No, I've slept enough."

The screen shut off. Jones, who had been sleeping with Ripley in her bed, was slightly perturbed at his human's sudden outburst that disturbed his sleep.

"Jonesy, come here." Ripley picked up the cat. Jones meowed in protest to being handled but started purring when Ripley began to pet him.

"It's all right. It's all right. It's over."

* * *

Ripley relaxed on a bench surrounded by beautiful green foliage and vibrant sunlight. She could hear the pleasant melody of chirping birds hidden in the trees. The serenity was broken when Carter Burke walked through the door. Ripley turned off the holographic projections with a remote.

"Hi, sorry I'm late. I've been running behind all morning."

"Is there any word about my daughter?" Ripley stood up. She didn't care about the company representative's tardiness problems. She had her own problems and she wanted answers.

"Uh, I really think we should worry about the hearing now because we don't have a lot of time. I read your deposition and it's great. If you just stick to that I think we'll be fine. The thing to remember is that there is gonna be a lot of heavyweights in there. There's gonna be-"

"Do you have any news about my daughter?" Ripley cut off Burke before he could continue his corporate ramblings.

"Well we did come up with some information. Why don't we sit down? I was hoping to wait until after the inquest." Burke rummaged through the files. "Um…Amanda Ripley-McClaren. Married name I guess. Age sixty-six. And that was at the time of her death…which was two years ago. I'm real sorry."

Ripley took the photo of her daughter and her heart sank. "Amy."

"She was cremated and interred at West Lake Depository, Little Shoot, Wisconsin. No children, I checked."

"I promised her…that I'd be home for her birthday. Her eleventh birthday."

Carter Burke kept quiet for a moment. Missing her daughter by a couple years must have been devastating. Burke had checked earlier and learned that no one had yet told Ripley that Earth and its colonies had discovered an entire galactic civilization while she was in hypersleep. That bombshell was definitely something that could wait until after the inquisition and Burke really didn't want to have to be the one to deliver that particular piece of shocking news.

* * *

"Uh…I'd like to go back to this point…about the override destruct orders."

"I don't understand this. We have been here three and a half hours. Now, how many different ways to you want me to tell the same story?" Ripley was up and out of her chair. She was restless and tired of being stuck in a stuffy boardroom.

"Look at it from our perspective, please," Van Leuwen, the head of the inquisition, pleaded. "Please?"

Ripley sat back down.

"Now you freely admit to detonating the engines of and therefore destroying an M-class starfreighter, a rather expensive piece of hardware."

"Forty-two million in adjusted credits," another suit spoke up. "That's minus payload of course."

"The lifeboat's flight recorder collaborates some elements of your account. In that for reasons unknown the _Nostromo_ set down on LV-426, an unsurveyed planet at that time, that it resumed its course and was set for self-destruct by you for reasons unknown."

"Not for reasons unknown I told you. We set down on company orders to get this thing, which destroyed my crew and your expensive ship."

"The analysis team which went over the lifeboat centimeter by centimeter found no physical evidence of the creature you describe," Van Leuwen said.

"Good. Because I blew it out of the goddam airlock," Ripley snapped for a second. She quickly calmed down again. "Like I said."

"Are they any species like this hostile organism on LV-426?" Another suit asked.

"No. It's a rock. No indigenous life."

"Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? Ma'am, I already said that it was not indigenous. It was a derelict spacecraft. It was an alien ship. It was not from there." Ripley was tired of having to repeat herself over and over. "Do you get it? We homed in on its beacon."

"And found something never recorded once in over twenty million surveyed worlds. A creature that gestates inside a living host. These are your words: "and has concentrated acid for blood.""

"That's right. Look…I can see where this is going. But I'm telling you that those things exist."

"Thank you Officer Ripley. That will be all." Van Leuwen sounded that he had heard enough.

"Please you're not listening to me. Kane, the crewmember that…Kane, who went into that ship, said he saw thousands of eggs there. Thousands."

"Thank you that will be all."

"Goddammit that's not all! Because if one of those things gets down here than that will be all! Then all this—this bullshit that you think is so important, you can kiss all that goodbye!" Ripley threw a few papers and the room went silent for a moment.

"It is the finding of this court of inquiry that Warrant Officer E. Ripley has acted with questionable judgment and is unfit to hold the license of a commercial flight officer. Your license is suspended indefinitely. Now, no criminal charges will be filed against you at this time and you are released on your own recognizance for a six month period of psychometric probation to include a monthly review by a psychiatric technician. These proceedings are closed." The suits all started packing up.

"That could have been better," Burke whispered to Ripley. "Look I think that-"

Ripley turned away from Burke. "Van Leuwen. Why don't you just check out LV-426?"

"Because I don't have to, there have been people there for over twenty years, and they haven't complained of any hostile organism."

"What do you mean? Ripley demanded. "What people?"

"Terraformers. Planet engineers. They go in and set up these big atmosphere processors to make the air breathable. Takes decades. It's what we call a "Shake 'N Bake" colony."

Ripley blocked Van Leuwen's path with her arm. "How many are there? How many colonists?"

"I don't know. Sixty…maybe seventy families. Do you mind?"

Ripley let him go. "Families…Jesus."

There was something else said during the inquisition that bothered Ripley. She turned back to Burke, determined to get answers. She had been fumbling around in the dark long enough. "Twenty million surveyed worlds? Before I left on the _Nostromo_ that number was under three hundred. We couldn't have expanded that fast. What the hell is going on?"

"We didn't survey them all." Burke looked sheepish.

"What do you mean "we"?"

"We are not alone. Twenty-six years ago we made contact with a galactic civilization."

"What? And no one thought to tell me this sooner?" Ripley couldn't wait to hear this.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The title of the chapter, Bad Dreams, is named after one of the tracks from the Aliens Deluxe edition soundtrack.

Commander Vulpus originally appeared in the 4-part comic series Star Wars: General Grievous.

Ellen Ripley and Jones both appeared in the movies Alien and Aliens. Jones has the distinction of being one of the few individuals in the movie series to survive a xenomorph encounter.

Carter Burke, Van Leuwen and Gateway Station all appeared in the movie Aliens.

This chapter is very similar to the beginning of the movie Aliens. I figured I'd start with something simple and recognizable before delving too much into the crossovers.


	3. Amongst the Ruins

**Chapter 3: Amongst the Ruins**

Mygeeto was a wealthy InterGalactic Banking Clan colony world in the Outer Rim that was currently enduring an ice age. Glacial ice and crystal spurs covered large portions of the planet. Mygeeto held immense mineral wealth including nova crystals, lightsaber crystals and artesian crystals. When the Clone Wars began Mygeeto was rightly labeled an enemy of the Galactic Republic. For two years Mygeeto had been a contested planet. The Galactic Republic refused to leave the world alone. The Confederacy had long kept the clone armies away from their important manufacturing and mining centers. Over time the CIS gradually started to lose their factories during massive battles. As the war dragged on the Separatists were actually in real danger of losing ownership of the planet, and thus sent in an elite fighting force to deal with the situation once and for all.

A new Separatist army marched across the war-torn planet. The reinforcements launched an all out attack against the Republic invaders in order to alleviate the pressure off of Mygeeto's failing defenders. When the newcomers first started landing troops down in dropships the Republic took no special notice of it. Both factions had sent the occasional reinforcements to keep the battle going. But this new deployment was proving to be different than previous ones. Beside the endless ocean of battle droid troops marched several large clusters of unggoy and sligs.

Both the unggoy and sligs were among the most numerous species of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. What was so unusual is that they typically assigned as support troops or guards rather than frontline fighters.

Even though the sligs and unggoy had joined with the Confederacy before the Clone Wars had begun, both groups were still seen as newcomers to the civilized Galaxy.

The sligs hailed from the planet Oddworld, which had been discovered by the Trade Federation one year before the First Contact War between the turians and the Earth humans. Unlike Earth, Oddworld's discovery had been low-key and nonviolent. Oddworld's inhabitants were slow to normalize relations with other planets. Oddworld slowly and voluntarily became a client of the Trade Federation and joined the Confederacy when it was first formed. The small period between the Confederacy's founding and the Clone Wars was when Oddworld started seriously shipping its products abroad. They also started shipping their people, mostly sligs, to act as guards. The timing of the war coupled with the spread of the sligs caused many people in the Galaxy to tie them to the droid army, if that threw them into a positive or negative light depended on whether or not an individual supported the CIS or not.

The unggoy were even newer to the galactic community. The unggoy used to be a slave species in the Covenant Empire. The Covenant was a theocratic hegemony that consisted of multiple alien species that lived in previously uncharted territory. The Covenant Empire lived in peaceful ignorance of the Galactic Republic and the Citadel until the Covenant had discovered a Systems Alliance colony planet and started a war that eventually forced all of Citadel space into a four-year war for survival.

The Citadel-Covenant War was ended by the Great Schism, in which the Covenant was divided in half along racial lines. The unggoy, mgalekgolo and sangheili rebelled against the ruling san 'shyuum while the yanme'e, kig-yar and jiralhanae stayed loyal. Two years before the Clone Wars began, the Covenant Separatists joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems. A year later the Covenant Loyalists joined the Galactic Republic. The next year the war between the Confederacy and Republic had begun (partly inspired by the hate the two opposing factions of the Covenant had for each other). Like the sligs, the unggoy had also been unfairly associated with the Separatist Droid Army by large portions of the galactic community.

Sligs and unggoy both fought alongside one another and with the battle droids, but not usually to the extent the Republic soldiers were seeing on Mygeeto now. Slig and unggoy units were mixed in together with mgalekgolo, battle droids, humans, neimoidians, and gossam. There were even a few sangheili, which was quite significant since sangheili troops were even less likely to mix in with other CIS troops due to their speciesist attitudes.

* * *

Yayap let out a sigh of expiration. Visibility was poor today. The sky was anything but clear. It was not snow that obscured their vision, but falling ash. The two years of fighting had caused a negative impact on the planet's environment. Enemies would be harder to see but on the positive side, Yayap and his friends would be harder to spot as well.

Air tainted with contaminated ash did not bother Yayap for he was an unggoy; and unggoy wore specialized breather masks that allowed them to breathe methane. Unggoy did not breathe oxygen as so many other races did. Unggoy were always seen wearing their masks unless they were on their homeworld or a planet that featured a methane atmosphere. The truly ignorant people of the Galaxy began to see the unggoy as cybernetic beings.

Two other unggoy by the names of Gagaw and Curlap were with Yayap. The trio of grunts was on a particularly boring patrol assignment. They had their weapons out and ready but they were not expecting any sort of fight. Things had been quiet.

"How many you think you gonna kill?" Gagaw asked Yayap. Gagaw was certain that they would come under attack today and had been asking everyone how many enemies they thought they would kill in the battle.

"I dunno. Four?"

Gagaw gave a grunt of disapproval. "You know you will kill more than that."

"It was just a guess. Besides…the droids do most of the killing anyway."

Yayap's combat harness was jet black, signifying that he was a special operations soldier. Gagaw's armor was red, indicated that he was a major. Yayap and Gagaw had been close friends for years. They used to belong to the same squad until Yayap had been reassigned to a special ops sangheili near the end of the Citadel-Covenant War. Fate had apparently decided not to keep the two friends apart, and they soon were reunited and kept in the same army together when the Covenant Separatists had joined the CIS.

"It doesn't matter how many we kill as long as we stay alive," the unggoy Curlap added. Curlap wore a white combat harness that signified that he was an ultra grunt.

"I don't know why you are so sure there will be a battle today," Yayap said.

"Look how quiet and peaceful it is. When is it ever this nice without something going on just out of our field of vision? How could something not blow up today?"

The trio arrived at a guard post. A single shade turret and three deployable cover shields were set up in the care of another trio of unggoy. The special ops grunt Zakap was awake and alert. The grunts Mehmep and Nomnom were sound asleep.

"Anything?" the special ops grunt Zakap asked.

"Nothing to report," Yayap said. The unggoy had previously seen a lot of action on Mygeeto but suddenly had been assigned guard duty deep in CIS-held territory.

"I'm bored," Zakap complained.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Curlap lectured.

"Why not play some videogames on your omni-tool?" Yayap suggested.

"What do you think I've been doing for hours on end? Besides…videogames aren't as exciting as a real battle."

"Videogame battles are way better," Curlap muttered, "in real life you don't get extra lives, and there's no restart button."

"I wanna go see why we were set up on guard duty," Zakap declared, "Maybe see if we can't get transferred to the frontlines."

"Fine, go." Curlap waved the other grunt on. The high-ranking unggoy was enjoying the quiet and really didn't feel like listening to any more whining. "Yayap, go with him. Gagaw and me will watch things here."

Yayap had no qualms about keeping their sleepy assignment. He didn't have quite the bloodlust that Zakap had. Yayap knew Curlap sent him with Zakap in order to make sure the grunt didn't get himself in trouble.

The pair of special ops grunts left their allies and headed for the CIS command center.

"You really think you can convince the Commander to give you a new assignment?" Yayap asked.

"I dunno," Zakap said, "it's worth a shot. It's no worse than standing around waiting for an enemy that isn't going to show up."

"We don't need to participate in a battle every day."

"Maybe we should. There are few unggoy as experienced as us. When we're not fighting, someone else is. And they don't stand as good a chance at surviving as we do."

Yayap let out a small sigh that was barely audible outside the confines of his mask. Zakap had a point, though Yayap still thought that they could use a break.

The two special ops grunts passed by several small groups of unggoy, sligs and battle droids. Many of the unggoy and sligs were sprawled out sleeping on the ground, leaving the droids with the task of staying alert. Sligs and unggoy had a lot in common, their love of naps just being one of many traits the two species both shared.

Various Separatist battle droids stood watch. If circumstances were different the droids would not have allowed their organic allies to sleep on the job but there was no incoming threat. Even if there were an attack, sligs and unggoy were light sleepers and very easy to wake.

The battle droids certainly made life easier for the sligs and unggoy. The near endless numbers of droids inspired courage in the organic troops. The standard B1 battle droid was the most common soldier in the entire CIS military. B1 battle droids stood 1.91 meters tall, much taller than their slig and unggoy allies. The B1 droid model was scrawny and skeletal-looking but was more durable than one might first guess. Most had tan colored armor plating but some had alternate color schemes such as the rusty red droids that were so much associated with the planet Geonosis or the black and gray camouflage pattern B1s from Zakkudos.

A less common sight the two unggoy passed was the B2 super battle droid. While the B2 was an upgrade from the older B1, the newer super battle droids ended up being less versatile. The B2s were more expensive but were less efficient at non-combat roles.

Both the B1s and B2s were nothing compared the to the few dwarf spider droids wandering about the area. The four-legged, spider-like droids had the firepower equal to a small tank despite the fact that they were classified as an infantry droid.

Yayap and Zakap were silent as they passed by their sleeping grunt and slig allies. It would be rude to disturb their rest. There was however, a faint metal clanging that could be heard in the distance. As Yayap and Zakap trotted onward, the metal clanging got steadily louder and clearer.

In time the two grunts saw what was causing the noise. They had come across a female human sparring with a B1 battle droid. It was Major Ashley Katen and Sergeant 3B3-888. Katen had a wiry, athletic build and short, spiky blonde hair. 3B3-888 was easy to identify from the other B1 battle droids because he had black CIS emblems painted on his shoulder plates.

Major Katen was using her electrostaff (though it was shut off as she didn't intend to cause the droid any real harm) while the battle droid blocked the attacks with nothing more than his forearms.

Major Ashley Katen had a reputation of being a hardcore bitch. She was a skilled fighter and had even killed Jedi before. Despite being a rather scary individual, Yayap rather liked her. For some unexplained reason Yayap even found her attractive, though he would certainly never admit it to anyone.

"Yayap, Zakap, how's it going?" Katen knew the two grunts well enough to be on a first name basis with them, though they weren't close personal friends. Yayap was impressed that she was able to tell them apart by sight at all. So many other species couldn't differentiate between unggoy when they were wearing their masks. Though being able to tell unggoy apart wasn't so surprising since Katen was able to tell the difference between identical battle droids. Yayap had seen Katen address battle droids by name from just a glance; how she was able to do this he had no idea.

"We're going to go see why we were suddenly assigned guard duty," Zakap answered, "I think we'd be more useful on the frontlines."

"Sounds like fun, I think I'll join you." Always up for a fight herself, Katen decided to tag along with the two unggoy. "Coming, 3B3-888?"

"You go on," the battle droid said, "someone actually has to stay at their post in case the enemy attacks."

"Suit yourself," the waved as she left the droid.

It was only a short walk further before the Katen and the two unggoy reached the command center. They passed by a dark gray and blue AAT before being brought to a halt as a pair of security battle droids checked their clearance and let them in the building.

The interior of the command center wasn't that different than the outside. Everything was bathed in a depressing, dull gray. A few OX9 worker droids could be seen milling about with their various assigned tasks. The OX9s were so preoccupied with their jobs they paid the newcomers no attention.

"I love the Confederacy," Zakap stated.

"Oh?" Katen turned to the unggoy as they walked.

"These labor droids you use are great. Back in the old Covenant Empire the unggoy did all the menial labor. Even high-ranking grunts weren't exempt from the work. It was insulting. Here, you guys treat us like real soldiers."

"That why you can't stand lying around doing nothing, Soldier Guy?" Katen's lips curled into a soft smile that made Yayap's heart skip a beat.

They made it to the heart of the command center, it had not taken them long to reach the officer in charge. He was easy enough to spot, there weren't many other individuals in the room save for a few pilot battle droids sitting at computer consoles.

The high-ranking officer in charge of all military forces in the area, whom they all took direction from in case a battle were to suddenly befall them, the individual responsible for the readiness and well being of the entire battle group…was watching television on a computer terminal screen.

"Hey." Katen was very casual with her superior officer. There was clearly no sign of deference or respect in her voice.

The officer didn't turn to answer or acknowledge any of them. He was too enamored with watching his show. The lights emanating from the screen illuminated the officer's slate-gray uniform.

"Hey," Katen said a little louder this time.

The other Separatist officer still did not acknowledge her.

"Hey, bolt brain! I'm talking to you!" Katen grabbed the officer's chair and swiveled it around to face her.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to watch my show." Major Katen's superior was Commander Karl Zako. Though a human male, Karl Zako was technically a cyborg. His left eye was cybernetic. His left eye's iris and pupil were violet against his jet black sclera. No attempt had been made to make the eye look natural when it was installed. The eye gave Zako a rather unnerving and unnatural appearance.

"Don't you have more important things to do?" Katen crossed her arms.

"Like what? Do _your_ work for you? Do your own work yourself."

"What if we were attacked?" Katen's argument was hardly convincing.

"You know I'm connected to the network. I'm updated with information as quickly as the droids are. We're fine." Zako's cybernetic eye gave him an uplink to the Separatist Droid Network. He was as much apart of the network as the battle droids were, and for some reason that had always made Yayap nervous (though he had never voiced his concern about it to anyone).

"Speaking of attacking," Zakap interjected, "why aren't we attacking? We have the Republic on the run. Why were we suddenly assigned to guard duty? It's boring."

"Because that's what the General ordered. And we follow our orders. Is this what you came to bother me about? Go enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts." Zako turned back to his show. Zakap was getting sick of his superior officers telling him to enjoy the break in the fighting.

"That Earth crap will rot your brain." Katen looked to see what Zako was watching.

"What would you know about it?"

"I know it's just a bunch of ridiculously oversized exosuits. Earth shows are so stupid."

"As opposed to all the other crap that's out there in the Galaxy?"

"That's why you need to be working on more important things…real things," Katen's voice had suddenly grown softer.

"Everything's precisely on schedule, there's no need to rush anything," Commander Zako said.

"And this is why you'll never advance in rank ever again. You need to stop wallowing in fantasy and pay attention to real life," Katen's tone had changed again and she was suddenly getting snarky.

"Reality sucks," Zako was quick to reply. "Besides, this show is more than just the giant exosuits. Earth culture is so fascinating."

"Doesn't seem so great to me," Zakap grumbled.

"Your thinking about the Systems Alliance military," Zako corrected, "they're a joke. But Earth's culture is powerful. It's so interesting and different. Their civilization has been isolated from galactic society for so long. Their old stuff they made before they made contact is the best. The earthers were so lonely and bored they created so many different monsters and creatures compared to any other society. It's amazing how often they fantasized about being invaded by an alien presence before the turians actually did it. And their food is delicious. Only Oddworld has better food. Hamburgers and pizza could only be beat by paramite pies and scrab cakes."

"Yeah, yeah. Enough with the history lesson," Katen grumbled. Zako had majored in history when he attended university in his youth. Katen usually found her childhood friend's occasional ramblings boring while Yayap and some of the other unggoy found them to be at least mildly interesting.

"Their military wasn't a joke when we fought them," Zakap brought the conversation back around to a previous point.

"Yes it was. You and the unggoy were just hindered by the fact that the sangheili and jiralhanae are all incompetent military officers."

Zakap let out a laugh. "That is true."

"Look, I understand that you're bored," Zako said, "but this is what the General ordered us to do. Don't take it as some personal slight. He always does something for a reason. Just wait a little and see."

"But…" Zakap protested.

"The next person to bug me about it gets to take weapons inventory for the entire battle group," Zako quickly added.

"Fine." Zakap gave up on the issue.

Yayap and Zakap turned and started to leave. Katen stayed behind.

"Don't you have better things to do?"

"No. I don't."

"Lazy fatass."

"Leave me alone, Ashley."

"Can't you watch that on your own?"

Zako turned to his friend and pointed at his cybernetic eye. "All holographic images come out with a violet tint to them. It makes it look weird. You know that."

"You know…your life is going to pass you by without you even noticing…"

"I doubt that very much. I'm sure we'll all die in battle soon enough anyway. Hey, could you go get me a paramite pie before you go?"

Katen punched Zako in the arm, hard. "I'm not your maid! Get it yourself!" She stormed away.

"Owww…son of a bitch."

* * *

**Author's Note:** The title of the chapter, Amongst the Ruins, is named after the first level in the campaign mode of Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Karl Zako and Ashley Katen are both OCs from OOM-9's Revenge.

Karl Zako's last name is an homage to the Zako Soldiers of the TV show SD Gundam Force. Zako Soldiers are cannon fodder robotic infantry and are a parody of the Zaku II mobile suit. Zako Soldiers and battle droids serve the same purpose in their respective armies, hence the name Zako seemed appropriate since he hangs around battle droids all day.

Ashley Katen's last name is 'cat' and 'kitten' spliced together.

3B3-888 originally appeared in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He is also a character in OOM-9's Revenge.

Yayap, Zakap, Curlap, Gagaw, Nomnom, and Mehmep are all characters in Yayap's Story.


	4. Combat Troops

**Chapter 4: Combat Troops**

"That was pointless," Yayap told Zakap as they started to make their way out of the command center.

"Not entirely," Katen said from behind as she caught up.

"Huh?" Yayap wasn't sure what the human meant. From what he could tell their little journey to see their commanding officer had been an exercise in futility.

"I did get to punch the Commander. That was fun," Major Katen clarified.

"You really think you could have gotten a different answer?" Yayap asked his friend.

"No. Not really," Zakap admitted.

The ground suddenly shook for a brief but violent moment. Yayap ended up having to put a hand on the floor to keep his balance. Katen leaned against the wall. Zakap wobbled a bit but was able to keep from tipping over.

"What was that?" Yayap asked.

"Give you one guess," Zakap said.

"Gas leak?" Yayap joked.

Rather than go outside to see what the problem was like a bunch of idiots, the trio raced back towards Commander Zako to find out exactly what the situation was.

Commander Zako was no longer watching his show on the terminal screen. Before any of them could ask him, they heard their answer.

"Obsidian Base requesting assistance! We are under heavy attack by clone ground and air forces."

The ground reverberated once again. The commander turned around to address Katen and the two grunts. "What are you three still doing here? Get out there and fight!"

Commander Zako got out of his chair and led the way, Major Katen and the unggoy falling in behind him. Yayap had learned that is was a rather common practice for officers in the Confederacy to fight alongside their troops. To shy away from entering combat meant risking being labeled a coward, especially for younger officers who were still physically fit to fight. For officers such as Zako and Katen, it was less about being labeled cowards and more that they actually enjoyed participating in battle.

Combat sirens echoed throughout the building as all personnel rushed to their battle stations. Zako was the first one out of the command center.

"I'll take the tank." Zako made his way over to the nearby AAT that was still parked next to the building. Still in his officer's uniform, the commander wasn't really suited to act as a regular infantry unit.

Katen, Yayap and Zakap ran on without the commander. They were joined by several battle droids rushing on to meet the enemy. All around the once sleeping sligs and unggoy had woken up and drawn their weapons up. A military composed mostly of battle droids, sligs, and unggoy: there were many in the Galaxy that considered them a joke. Individually they weren't the best fighters, but they had numbers, plus they excelled at teamwork and fighting dirty. They would not lie down and admit defeat. Not to the clone troopers, not to the Jedi, or any of their other enemies. The Grand Army of the Republic had invaded sovereign Confederate territory with their vile insolence. The soldiers that served in the Separatist army would make sure they answered for their crime.

Even with visibility poor Katen, Yayap and Zakap could clearly hear the signs of battle. Streaks of red and blue lasers cut through the ashen skies above as Republic V-19 Torrent fighters fought with CIS Mankvim-814 interceptors.

"Look out!" Zakap yelled. A V-19 Torrent fighter had been fatally wounded and was dive-bombing right towards them. The clone pilot had decided that if he was going down that he would take as many Separatists with him as he could.

Yayap broke left while Zakap and Katen went right. The falling fighter came up short and the explosion failed to catch any of the infantry he was aiming for. The sheer force of the impact did knock a few infantry off their feet, Yayap included.

Yayap fumbled around in a daze, his vision was blurred and he could hardly hear a thing. He grasped around at the ground, searching for where he had dropped his plasma pistol. _Fucking perfect_, coherent thoughts returned to Yayap. _I haven't even reached the enemy yet and already I've lost my damn gun_.

Yayap could have sworn he heard a female voice, though it was hard to make out through the sounds of battle. Yayap recognized the engines of STAPs buzzing about, the distant roar of a plasma mortar from a wraith battle tank, the shouting of infantry as humans, neimoidians, sligs, and unggoy struggled to follow the more coordinated battle droids.

Yayap heard the female voice again, though this time it was much closer and much clearer. He could tell it was Katen. "Hey! Hey! Are you alright?" She grabbed Yayap by his right arm and hefted him up before the unggoy could even offer her an answer.

"Lost…my gun."

"I see it." Katen dashed over towards the plasma pistol lying on the ground not too far away. She quickly returned it to its owner.

"Thanks."

"Come on. Let's go." Katen took off. Yayap quickly followed. Yayap hadn't yet seen the enemy infantry yet, but he knew they were in the fog. Yayap could smell them. The Republic's clone troopers smelled like cheap burning plastic (even when they weren't on fire). Their unnatural scent was easy to pick out in nearly any environment.

Another explosion rocked the ground near their immediate location, though this time it was rockets fired from a Republic gunship rather than an entire aircraft.

"Republic bastards," Katen wheezed as the smoldering air assaulted her lungs. "They sure don't mind overkill."

"Where's Zakap?" Yayap managed to ask. The cosmic forces of the universe seemed to provide Yayap with the answer to his question. A moment later, he saw his friend up ahead. The other special ops grunt had kept going on and was now firing his needler into the fog.

Blue streaks retaliated for the unggoy's pink needles of death and Zakap was forced to take cover. Katen and Yayap came over to join him.

"Bout time you show up," Zakap muttered as he fired a few extra needle rounds.

Yayap was confused. "How long was I out?"

"A good twenty seconds. I hope you had a nice little nap because now it's time to-" Zakap was cut off when a thermal detonator exploded nearby.

A few of the clone troopers were getting close enough that Yayap could see what they looked like. The clones were wearing maroon and white armor. It was clear they were Galactic Marines. The Galactic Marines had a reputation as being an elite fighting unit, but reputations didn't mean much to the droid army. They were simply another enemy to kill.

Several red blaster bolts cut into the clone troopers from the side. The advancing squad of clones was wiped out.

"It's about time you guys joined in on the fun." 3B3-888 and a squad of battle droids had flanked the clones.

"Hey, save some for me, Sergeant," Katen said.

"There are more than enough clones to go around." A clone was moaning and squirming on the ground; he had been shot but not killed. The B1 battle droid turned and shot the clone in the head.

A dark gray and blue AAT was slowly approaching their position. "We better get going," Katen said, "the Commander's slow ass is actually catching up to us."

* * *

The Galactic Marines were moving fast and with overwhelming numbers. AT-RTs and IFT-X repulsor tanks rushed the enemy as the infantry struggled to keep pace with the speedy vehicles. There were multiple bridges and walkways leading to the outskirts of the Mygeetan manufacturing metropolis, thought the Confederate base was the Republic's current target. The various bridges were old and worn, having suffering from countless previous battles. There was a drop of several kilometers awaiting anyone who fell off. The Republic had sent in UT-ATs (unstable terrain artillery transports) as their heavy hitters to make sure they didn't go past the weight limit and break the bridges.

Leading the operation against the Separatist base was Commander Jet. Jet needed this mission to be quick and clean. They had put a lot of resources into this particular strike and they needed to return to the Republic's defensive line soon or the Republic would lose their position on the planet entirely.

"Let's move 'em out. The enemy forward command post is on the other side of this bridge. We'll have to capture it before moving on." Commander Jet issued out orders to his troops.

Various hues of purple cut into the Republic ranks as several types of shade turrets opened fire on the advancing clone troopers and their vehicles.

"Let's turn this place into a scrap pile!" A Galactic Marine was overly enthusiastic about the mission.

"Watch your flank!" A trio of destroyer droids rolled in and deployed into attack mode to stop the clone troopers but were countered by a pair of AT-RTs. The recon walkers were just barely powerful enough to take down the droids' shields and finish them off.

"Destroy those walkers," a battle droid ordered. Sligs and unggoy were pulling back as the battle started to tip out of favor for the CIS. The fearless droids refused to give any ground.

"We need to make some space for General Mundi to land," Jet told his clones. Small squads of clones started to break off from the main battle group, heading to disable or destroy the shade turrets.

A Banshee swooped in low and assaulted the clones with pesky plasma blasts.

"Where's our air support?" Jet demanded over the comm. No Torrent fighters came to assist, the enemy Banshee instead being shot out of the sky by a clone trooper with a PLX rocket launcher.

The purple vehicle fell out of the air, its sangheili pilot thrown free from the wreck. The sangheili pilot fell with a sickening thud right near Jet. The clone commander turned to make sure the alien was dead, better safe than sorry. Satisfied that the elite was no longer amongst the living, the clone commander continued onward.

* * *

"Dammit! The second you leave the enemy _would_ attack!" Curlap complained when he saw Zakap and the others approach. The unggoy ultra fired off a few more rounds from his plasma rifle, catching a clone in the gut. Gagaw fired his plasma pistol wildly, sending bolts of green energy into the clones. There wasn't too much need for precise aiming, there were Republic troops everywhere. The unggoy Mehmep and Nomnom were now awake, fighting alongside the others.

"Have a taste of my bright blue balls!" Nomnom primed and threw a plasma grenade. The grenade stuck to the armor of a clone trooper.

"Gaahh! Get it off! Get it off!" The clone panicked and ran around before blowing up. The panicked clone's actions ended up with him killing two of his nearby allies.

Yayap overcharged his plasma pistol and nailed a Galactic Marine right in the chest. The armor melted against the super-heated plasma and the clone fell backwards, dead before he hit the ground.

"It's like their armor is designed to make sure they die!" Zakap laughed as he punctured a clone in the head with a single needle round.

"Hold you fire!" Katen ordered. "The tank is coming in! Give it some room!"

Commander Zako's armored assault tank passed in between the CIS infantry and started firing on the clones. Zako had no qualms against using the massive power of his vehicle against these particular living beings. Clones were shredded into piles of bloody meat and bone as the tank torn its way through their ranks. There was no moral ambiguity to the horrific bloodshed, soldiers of the Confederacy did not view the Republic's clone troopers as real life people who could feel and think. To the Separatists, the cloned beings were nothing more than mobile meat sacks wrapped in the most pathetic armor the Galaxy had ever seen.

The armored tank had found its desired position on the battlefield and the Confederate infantry were able to come around on its sides to continue providing support fire.

A LAAT/i gunship hovered in low and a squad of clones dropped down via ascension cables from their blaster rifles. Zako's tank fired at the gunship, but the clones managed to get to the ground safely before the AAT blasted their ride out of the sky.

The new clones quickly joined the old ones as corpses littering the ashen ground. The Separatists moved over the bridge.

"_Bridge A1 secured,"_ everyone could hear 3B3-888 announced over the radio.

"Come on, we're moving on to A2." Major Katen waved the battle group on.

* * *

The fighting on the next bridge over was not going as well for the Confederacy. The Galactic Marines had pushed there way past three-fourths of the bridge and showed no signs of stopping.

Most of the battle droids were destroyed. The surviving grunts and sligs were starting to run away. A lone mgalekgolo clad in black armor and armed with a needler cannon was the one thing keeping the clones from taking the bridge completely.

"Fall back! I'll cover you," the special ops hunter Deadside roared to the sligs and unggoy. The mgalekgolo kept his shield up to cover most of his body; the metal easily able to absorb the puny blaster bolts from the clones' DC-15A rifles and DC-15S blasters.

The hunter fired back at the clones with his needler cannon. The needler cannons used by certain hunters were powerful enough to destroy vehicles and aircraft, using them against simple infantry units was overkill. But considering Deadside's current situation overkill was called for.

The hunter found himself having to slowly back step away as the clones kept coming at him. It almost looked as if Deadside would have turn around and run, which was a bad choice as hunters were most vulnerable from behind. The special ops mgalekgolo only had one real option left, he still had his active camouflage. But Deadside wouldn't use it yet until the sligs and unggoy were clear, if he suddenly disappeared, then the others would become targets.

The hunter kept fighting the losing battle. But suddenly there were fewer blaster shots hitting against his shield. There were the all too familiar sounds of clone death cries. Deadside looked and noticed that the clones were being attacked from behind. Most of the clones didn't turn around to face their new attackers, not wanting to turn their backs to a hunter. The few clones that did had no chance against the sheer numbers of droids, sligs and unggoy.

"Hey, Deadside! Looks like you needed some help," Zakap called out.

"I was doing just fine, thank you," the hunter replied.

"You see?" Zakap said to no one in particular, "this is the thanks I get."

"He did say 'thank you,'" Yayap laughed.

Their short victory was cut short as one of the Republic's heavy hitters approached their position.

"_Katen, scatter your troops,"_ Zako's voice came in over the comm system. The commander's AAT was turning to face a slowly approaching UT-AT.

"Go! Go!" Katen urged everyone to get going. They needed to get clear before the enemy's big guns decided to target them.

Yayap ended up with Gagaw and Nomnom, the grunt trio ducking into a nearby maze of power cores and sentry posts to the right of the UT-AT. There really wasn't all that much cover for them to utilize, though it was enough that the Republic repulsor tank and its escort of soldiers didn't bother to shoot at them. The Republic troops instead chose to attack easier targets.

"Now what?" Nomnom asked. "We don't have the guns to deal with that tank."

"Let our tank deal with their tank," Gagaw said.

The situation was pretty much forced into what Gagaw had just stated. Commander Zako's AAT took on the UT-AT alone. The Separatist tank was outmatched in terms of power and durability, but was more maneuverable. Zako was constantly bobbing and weaving his tank around to avoid the UT-AT's cannons, just barely keeping himself alive.

On the left side of the UT-AT, 3B3-888 had rushed the clones. The suicidal dash caught them off-guard. 3B3-888 got right up to a clone, the Republic soldier deciding to throw a punch rather than fire his gun. The clone hit the battle droid in the chest, doing nothing but injuring his own hand. 3B3-888 hit the clone upside his head and spun him around, using him as a living shield.

3B3-888 fired upon the other clones. The Galactic Marines decided to abandon their captured brother to his fate and fired back at the droid. Several bolts of blue death cut into the clone, but none hit the droid.

The droids and other soldiers were likewise doing very well against the UT-AT's infantry escort. Some of the CIS troops even took to firing their weapons uselessly at the tank since there weren't enough clone infantry left to shoot.

The UT-AT blew up without warning—though it had not been destroyed by Zako's tank or the CIS infantry. It had been taken out from the sky. A single green plasma bomb had been dropped right on top of it.

"_We heard you were in need of some assistance,"_ the voice of the pilot battle droid KJZ-8267 came in over the comm system.

"_Thank you,"_ Zako replied from his tank. A few more seconds of fighting the large tank and the commander would have likely been killed.

"They sure showed up fast," Zakap grumbled.

"And you're complaining about that?" Curlap asked.

The air was clogged with various kinds of Separatist fighters, bombers and transports. The Republic was being hit in a massive flank attack.

Dozens of Scarab starfighters filled the air. The Republic's V-19 Torrent fighters were already busy with the Techno Union interceptors they were fighting before. With the newcomers, the Republic flyers were outnumbered three to one. Separatist MAF gunships and E-STAP droid starbombers pummeled the UT-ATs and IFT-X tanks. The small aerial hunter-seeker droids hunted down individual clone infantry.

Trade Federation dropships, VACs, and C-9979 landing craft put everything from homing spider droids to AATs to hailfire droids on the battlefield.

Amidst all the commotion Katen noticed a glowing blue lightsaber. "Jedi!" She took off after the Force-user.

"_Katen get back here!"_ Zako ordered her from his tank. _"You stupid bitch, you're gonna get yourself killed."_ Zako couldn't go after the Jedi as his tank was blocked by a pair of AT-RTs.

* * *

The Galactic Marines were hit hard by the surprise reinforcements. Some clones moved to take on the newcomers while others tried to keep the pressure on the troops from Obsidian Base. No matter which side the clones tried to defend against, there were simply too many enemies.

Hanging back from all the carnage was the architect of the whole scheme. The clever military mastermind who was responsible for instigating the Republic's thrashing was none other than General OOM-9.

The battle droid stood out of an open top hatch of an armored assault tank, observing the battle through a pair of electrobinoculars.

OOM-9 was a command battle droid. Command droids were specialty variants of the B1 droid line, easily distinguished by their dull yellow markings and command antennas on their back (and OOM-9 was further distinguished by the fact that he had black CIS emblems painted on his shoulder plates). They were made to lead other droids into battle. But OOM-9 had long ago surpassed his original programming. He was more than a simple command unit. He was a leader. OOM-9 had been in operation for well over a decade and had experienced much in his life (though most of those experiences dealt with warfare and combat). The Jedi were too inexperienced in war, the clones they commanded were too young and inexperienced, the jiralhanae that worked with them could barely be called military officers. OOM-9 had the capacity to outwit them all and it clearly showed on the battlefield.

"KJZ-8267, send your bombers to the fighter tanks at point G7. SSA-719, cut across the infantry at G3. Finish them all off!"

Lieutenant KJZ-8267 and the other bombers flew off for the strafing run they were just assigned.

Captain SSA-719 was in charge of a small squad of battle droids. One would assume a small squad of droid infantry wouldn't make much of a difference during such a large battle. That would have held true if not for the fact that this particular squad of droids were outfitted with very special (and expensive) optional equipment.

SSA-719 and his squad of B1 battle droids were equipped with repulsor pods. Repulsor pods looked like rectangular black boxes that were attached to a droid's leg just above the ankle. The multiple repulsor engines on all the device's surfaces allowed the droid to glide across the ground. They were based off of the CIS Nimbus commando's repulsor skates. For the older model repulsor stakes, the Nimbus commandos used them to quickly glide over muddy terrain. General OOM-9 took the idea and altered it so droids could use it. The droids only hovered centimeters from the ground, repulsor pods were not meant to replace jetpacks. They were meant to increase speed and maneuverability.

SSA-719 and his squad of B1 droids kept their knees slightly bent as they surfed over the ground towards their targets. They were very fast, faster than any other infantry unit could possibly be (though slower than if they had been riding STAPs). Besides the speed, the droids were maneuverable; dodging out of the way of the blaster fire the clones threw at them.

The B1s fired back with their E-5 blaster rifles; SSA-719 was equipped with the much more destructive E-60R rocket launcher. Most of the clones died on their first pass. The repulsor squad was easily able to turn around and circle strafe the remaining clones until none were left alive.

* * *

"I don't know how they could have known we'd attack this far into their territory," Mundi said as he killed a sangheili that got in his way. The Jedi was trying to flee from a human armed with an electrostaff.

"General! We need to get you out of here! We're being overwhelmed!" Commander Jet yelled out to the Jedi when he came into view.

Mundi had to turn around and face his well-armed enemy or risk getting hit in the back. Sparks flew as his blue lightsaber blade made contact against the gray phirk metal of the staff.

General Mundi was astounded by the ferocity of his opponent. She was skilled, fast and difficult to read. She blocked, lunged and parried so fluidly as if the whole time she were fighting by reflex alone. She clearly wasn't thinking, Mundi would have been able to read her movements through the Force if she were a normal opponent. He was sure the human female had quite a bit of experience fighting Jedi.

A trio of sligs cut away Jet's squad with their T-1 assault rifles. The T-1 favored by sligs was old tech, they even used bullets but they were very effective against infantry. The clone armor did nothing to protect them.

What few Galactic Marines were left were quickly becoming surrounded. It was expected that the fleet-footed sligs and B1 battle droids were in the clones' personal space. But even the slower unggoy and the dwarf spider droids were showing up everywhere. General OOM-9's tank was even approaching the fight.

"Got you, sucker!" Nomnom overcharged his plasma pistol and hit Commander Jet in the face. The superheated plasma fused the clone's skin and helmet together in a swirling vortex of unimaginable pain before he died.

"Major, stop playing with the Jedi and finish him off," OOM-9 spoke with a tone that suggested that he really expected better of her.

"I'm trying! I really am! I could use some help here!"

"If you'd back up, I'll take care of it right now!"

Katen backed off from the Jedi and OOM-9's tank fired its primary laser cannon at the Jedi. When the dust settled it was clear the shot missed and the Jedi was on the run. OOM-9's tank lurched forward, chasing the Jedi down.

There were almost no clones left. The few that were still alive were busy combating the CIS troopers. The Jedi general had no one left to help him fight.

But the Jedi wasn't planning on fighting any more. General Mundi ran with all the might of the Force behind him and jumped off the bridge into the abyss below. OOM-9 knew the Jedi wasn't committing suicide.

A second later revealed the Jedi was aboard one of the last LAAT/i gunships. The craft was fleeing the scene, no doubt to return to the Republic's last remaining base on the planet. A few dwarf spider droids tried to shoot the gunship down, but in vain.

"_General, want me to go after him?"_ KJZ-8267 asked over the comm.

"No. Let him go. We know where he's heading. Nothing can save him now."

* * *

Yayap rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. He was bored waiting around in the troop bay of the Phantom he was riding. Yayap didn't mind not fighting but he was waiting for a battle he _knew_ would happen. The CIS was very quick to pack up all the major assets at Obsidian Base and move out towards the Republic's final stronghold.

Yayap was still with Gagaw, Curlap, Zakap, Mehmep, Nomnom, 3B3-888, and Deadside: all under the direct command of Major Katen. It was rather crowded, the hunter Deadside took up a lot of space.

"So, how many did you kill?" Gagaw asked Yayap.

"I lost count. It was more than four though."

"See? I knew it!"

"Uh-huh."

Major Katen's left forearm was suddenly enveloped in a brilliant violet glow as she activated her standard issue CIS omni-tool. She hit a few buttons and brought in General OOM-9 and Commander Zako on the tool's communication system.

"General, I've been wondering. How did you know the Republic would attack Obsidian Base?"

"_Obsidian Base was stationed to guard the energy collector, or more specifically, it's power crystal. I predicted the Republic would try to steal it before they abandoned the planet entirely."_

"Zako, did you know about this?"

"_No. I was just following orders, like I should. You see, Ashley? Good things happen when you follow orders."_

"Ugghhhh. Right. You're such a tool, you know that? I think you rely on the network more than the droids do." She shut her omni-tool off before the commander could say anything back.

"Just following orders." Katen tried her best to emulate Zako's voice. "Nyeahhh." She stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"Doesn't seem so bad to me," Zakap said, "we did get to fight after all."

"You would have been in the fighting right from the start if you'd just showed the tiniest bit of patience," Curlap said.

"_We'll be landing in two minutes."_ The voice of the Phantom's pilot was heard over the comm.

Explosions echoed all around as Republic ant-air tanks tried to shoot down the CIS aircraft. Smaller units like the hunter-seeker droids and Banshees were able to avoid the missiles easily. Larger transports like the C-9979 landing craft or Trade Federation dropships couldn't be brought down by the missiles at all. Medium ships like Spirits, Phantoms and neimoidian transports were the only ones who faced a real threat, but there were so many and the battle was so messy that most of the vulnerable aircraft weren't even targeted in the first place.

The Republic base was already too busy trying to fend off the CIS army that was already engaged with attacking it. An army led by Senior Commander EEK-176.

EEK-176 was a command battle droid just like OOM-9, though he had a much more unique color scheme. EEK-176's face and shoulder plates were bleached white while the rest of his armor plating was colored burnt umber. On the droid's bleached white shoulder plates were black CIS emblems. The command droid had an equally unique armament to match his distinctive paint job.

Commander EEK-176 was dual wielding two ZGD gatling guns. He also had a ZPR gatling gun mounted on his right shoulder. Altogether he was using three rapid-fire weapons all at the same time. He was able to decimate entire platoons of clone troopers all on his own. The fact that he was also leading an entire army only made the clones' lives that much shorter.

While Commander EEK-176 and his army of battle droids, grunts, hunters, and sligs kept the clone troopers busy, Trade Federation bio cannons and Covenant locust walkers hit the base's buildings from long range. It was the simple keep the enemy army busy while your artillery bombs the base tactic.

With the arrival of General OOM-9's army, the Republic didn't stand a chance. It was less a battle and more of a slaughter; still the Galactic Marines never gave up. It was die fighting or just die; the CIS wasn't offering to take prisoners.

The Phantom lowered down to the ground and Yayap and the others piled out near EEK-176's location. They had a nice view of the command droid's path of death and destruction. Corpses of clones were piled high. The air was cut by a seemingly endless stream of red lasers from the ZGD gatling guns and violet lasers from the shoulder ZPR gatling gun. It was a rather spectacular light show.

Yayap and the others fired their weapons, though EEK-176 hardly needed any help, at least not until an IFT-X fighter tank closed in.

"Major, would you and your squad kindly take care of that tank for me?" Commander EEK-176 requested.

"Sure, no problem." Katen's voice oozed liquid sarcasm. "Because as you can see, my squad is _so_ prepared for anti-tank duty."

3B3-889 and Katen got the tank's attention while Zakap and Gagaw climbed on top of it and shot off the gunner. Zakap grabbed the gunner's corpse and tossed it away while Gagaw then primed a plasma grenade and threw it down into the tank. The two unggoy hopped off and the grenade went off inside the tank. There was no impressive explosion for them to see, that had occurred within the tank. Instead they were treated to the boring sight of the tank briefly losing control and grinding to a halt.

KJZ-8267 and his squadron of E-STAP bombers flew overhead, going through the Republic base and destroying all parked shuttles and transports. The idea was to deny the Jedi any means of escaping.

* * *

"General Mundi, sir!" Commander Bacara was surprised to see the Jedi walk into the command center. After what he had heard of the botched mission, the clone assumed he had been killed in action.

"I'm sorry commander, but I failed to acquire the crystal."

"It doesn't matter sir. We wouldn't have been able to get it off-world even if you had brought it here. They're targeting all transports and shuttles. Our remaining cruisers in space reported coming under attack from a huge Separatist fleet about an hour ago. We lost all communications with them forty minutes ago. They're gone, General. Everyone is gone. We're all that's left."

"Surrender is our only option at this point. I will go out and attempt to negotiate the terms of our surrender with the enemy."

"With all due respect sir, it doesn't look like they're taking prisoners this time."

The wall suddenly blew in. Debris and equipment and clones were violently thrown all about. Mundi was able to throw up a bubble of protection around himself and Bacara. It wasn't much but it was the best the Jedi could do.

"Time to die, Jedi." OOM-9's AAT sent a barrage of lasers into the open wound of the complex. The Jedi and the clone commander were to get away but some of the others were killed.

Mundi drew his lightsaber and moved towards the gaping whole in the wall. He was going for the tank, but a squad of super battle droids and droidekas surrounding it encouraged him to retreat back into the building.

"There are too many. We must flee."

"Yes, General."

General Mundi and the remained clones fled through the opposite side of the command center from OOM-9's tank. They thought they might have a chance at getting to a shuttle or a gunship that hadn't been destroyed yet but that possibility sank when another CIS squad cut them off.

"This is ridiculous!" a clone trooper said, "how can droids think of everything?"

"They aren't thinking," Bacara corrected, "there's just too damn many of them."

Mundi and his clones couldn't backtrack into the command center again, the squad of super battle droids and droidekas had followed them through. The trapped clones opted to fight the few grunts, battle droids, hunter, and human in front of them.

"I'll take the Jedi," Major Katen said.

"Ladies first, of course." Curlap fired his plasma rifle at a trio of clones clustered together.

Zakap tossed a plasma grenade and stuck Commander Bacara.

"Ohhhh… fuck yo-" the clone commander disappeared in the blue blast.

Yayap overcharged his plasma pistol and fired at the Jedi. The Jedi immediately brought his lightsaber up to block the blast. Mundi's lightsaber was successful in absorbing the charged plasma ball, but the impact shorted the weapon out. Charged shots from Covenant plasma pistols often stripped away personal shields or shorted out technology, and that included the lightsabers of the Jedi. Sometimes a charged shot would merely deactivate the lightsaber and the Jedi could simply switch it back on. Other times the lightsabers were severely damaged to the pointed that they didn't work at all. And on rare occasions a charged plasma pistol shot would detonate a lightsaber, almost guaranteeing the death of the Jedi wielding it.

In this case Yayap's overcharged shot merely shut Mundi's lightsaber off. But that was all the advantage Katen needed to finish the job. She hit the Jedi upside the head with her electrostaff. The hit was brutal; everyone could hear the cerean's skull crack.

Ki-Adi-Mundi fell to the ground, his body convulsing in sparks of violet electricity from the staff. Katen walked up and shot him twice in the head with her commando SE-14 blaster pistol just to make sure he was dead.

"Well… that was easier than expected." Katen twirled around her staff a few times just to show off before slamming one end against the ground.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The title of the chapter, Combat Troops, is named after one of the tracks from the Mass Effect 2: Overlord Original Score.

OOM-9 and SSA-719 originally appeared in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

EEK-176 originally appeared in the computer game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, where he assisted OOM-9 in conquering Naboo.

KJZ-8267 is an OC since there has never been a named pilot battle droid before (or at least at the time I wrote this). The number '8267' comes from the pilot droid figure that came with the Episode I armored scout tank mini-rig. In Aurebesh, '8267' is printed on the pilot droid's back.

Deadside is an OC from Yayap's Story.


	5. Abe's Oddysee

**Chapter 5: Abe's Oddysee**

Rupture Farms plant number 1029, the largest meat processing plant on Oddworld. Run by Molluck the glukkon, one of the most successful businessmen on Oddworld. Countless barrels of high quality meat treats were shipped under the Rupture Farms logo at staggeringly cheap prices. Operating costs could be astoundingly cheap when slave labor was employed.

A race known as the mudokons filled the role of slave labor. The mudokons were humanoid bipeds with green skin of varying hues and three fingers on each hand. They had two bulbous eyes and a rather frail bone structure. Mudokons were agile and great at running away, but this meant they were easier to bully by Oddworld's other inhabitants.

Abe was one of many mudokons employed at Rupture Farms. What made him stand out from the others was that he was employee of the year (and his skin was a shade bluer than most mudokons). Even though he was really a slave, Abe thought he had a good job. There were worse things he could be on the cruel and unforgiving planet of Oddworld.

Abe was working late. The blue mudokon hummed a merry tune as he pushed his buffer past an advertisement for meech munchies, though now the meeches were thought to be extinct. The meech munchies that were left fetched exorbitant sums that Abe could never afford. Abe let out a sigh of regret; meech munchies were delicious and it was unlikely he would ever taste them again.

Abe quickly pulled out of his temporary slump and went back to buffing. A few paces later, Abe came across a large advertisement for paramite pies. Rupture Farms still made paramite pies. Abe also passed one for scrab cakes, which were likewise delicious and still in production.

The next advertisement Abe walked past promised something new and tasty. Abe had no idea what the new product could be but couldn't wait to find out what it was.

A crack of light snatched Abe's attention away from the advertisement, and the curious mudokon snuck over to the source. The executive boardroom door hadn't been shut all the way. Abe peered in and saw that a meeting between the glukkons was taking place.

The glukkons were the dominant industrial race on Oddworld. Glukkons had bulbous heads with glowing eyes and trumpet-like ears. Their skin pigmentation varied more wildly than that of the mudokons. Pink was a common pigmentation, though there were many glukkons that were brown, green or purple. They lacked noses but even more interestingly they seemed to lack arms. They were extraordinarily tall, the average glukkon being 2.74 meters high. The glukkons were always seen in their expensive business suits which gave the appearance that they had wide shoulders.

"Okay, here they are," the only slig in the room said as the screen lit up with information. There were several charts showing a steep decline in profits tied to the fact that the planet's native animals were starting to dwindle in number.

"Hey, you see that," one of the glukkons grumbled to another. There were various murmurs between the glukkons as they reached the collective realization that the paramites and scrabs were starting to go extinct, just as the meeches had.

"Off-world demand has continued to grow," Molluck stated.

"We aren't meeting that demand," another glukkon wearing a purple suit spoke up.

"Demand is too high, there aren't enough animals on Oddworld to satisfy the Galaxy's hunger," a glukkon in a teal suit said.

"The program to breed paramites and scrabs on foreign planets has taken too many of the animals off of the market."

"We can't find a good deal to get them cloned."

"This war against the Republic is bad for business. We're losing potential buyers."

"The war makes no difference. We can't supply the buyers we have right now."

"Short term profits are falling too hard. We'll go bankrupt before the breeding program turns a significant profit."

"Things are going down," Molluck stated.

"What?" a glukkon in a snapped green suit exclaimed, "My god Molluck, what are you doing, huh?"

"Who asked?" Molluck turned his head back towards the other glukkons for the briefest of moments before turning back to his slig assistant, "show 'em."

"Alright, boss." The slig fiddled with the screen's remote control.

"Yeah." The screen showed a huge potential profit increase that would solve Rupture Farm's short-term money problems.

"Look it," the slig chuckled.

"But how?" the glukkon in the green suit spoke up again.

The screen popped up Molluck's solution to Rupture Farms' problem: a new meat treat from a plentiful source.

"Mudokons. We'll chop them up," Mullock said. The glukkons and the slig all started laughing. Mudokons were incredibly expendable. Turning their slaves into mudokon pops would cost the glukkons a significant part of their labor force, but the mudokons could easily be replaced by worker droids from the other member corporations of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Terrified, Abe backed away and started to run. Little did he know that he had been caught by one of the security cameras. Soon alarms started to blare, and a slig guard was already hot on Abe's trail.

Abe ran as fast as his scrawny legs would take him. He had to escape; he had to be free.

A vidscreen promoting something new and tasty changed to Abe's mug shot when he ran by. A security camera watched Abe run by as the slig guard tried to catch up.

Abe suddenly saw a ledge to a higher level. The mudokon made a running jump and pulled himself up. All too often Rupture Farms lacked guardrails, and in this instance it had saved a life. If an individual were athletic and energetic enough they could crawl around most of Rupture Farms as if it were a jungle gym. Abe started to run again; he soon noticed an open doorway on his left. His lack of attention for what was directly in front of him caused him to pass the door and slam right into a wall. The blue mudokon let out a groan as he stood back up and slowly turned to walk into the waiting black abyss of the open door. He went throw a very poorly lit hallway before emerging out the other end and once again was bathed in the dull light that coated most of the factory. Abe was able to continue running, leaving his slig pursuer in the dust.

His running eventually broke down to a light jog before the ending in a lazy saunter. Abe was tired and no one was currently chasing him, so it was surely okay for him to walk his way to freedom. Walking had its advantages: he could conserve energy while also being more aware of his surroundings. Plus a running mudokon would be a dead giveaway that he was the one the slig guards were now tasked to hunt down.

But even Abe's walking eventually devolved into him just standing there. Something had caught his attention. There was a large lever before him. It was a rusty yellow color with a light at the top.

One of Abe's coworkers was up ahead of him. The green slave was dutifully scrubbing the floor with a rag, oblivious to Abe or any of his other surroundings.

Abe couldn't fight the temptation. He had to know what the lever did. He gave the lever a swift pull—and suddenly the floor gave out beneath his co-worker. The poor mudokon let out a yelp that could be heard as he plummeted ever downward. Eventually Abe couldn't hear the cry anymore, but he never did hear a thump that would indicate the other mudokon had hit the ground. Abe was fairly certain he had just now accidentally become a murderer. "Oops."

* * *

Abe continued on with his mission of trying to escape Rupture Farms. He felt bad for accidentally killing the other mudokon, but there was nothing he could do about it now. It's not as if he could restart his escape and do it differently. He just had to keep moving on.

And move on Abe did, until he heard the sounds of snoring accompanied by the familiar sounds of a hand rag scrubbing metal. Abe paused on looked down, on the level just below him was a slig guard sleeping on the floor. Nearby was a mudokon slave scrubbing dried blood off of a wall. Abe had no idea why the glukkons had the mudokons scrub Rupture Farms so much, it was just going to get bloody all over again.

"Hello," Abe called out to the other mudokon.

The other mudokon stopped stubbing and turned up to face Abe. "Hello."

The two-word conversation had caused the sleeping slig guard to immediately wake up and start beating the shit out of the mudokon for not working.

_Oops,_ Abe thought to himself. It was clear the slig hadn't seen Abe for he focused all his attention on giving the other mudokon a thorough ass whooping.

Abe decided to sneak away. Though for some reason his joints made a horrible creaking sound when he snuck, which ended up being louder than how he walked normally. Yet somehow the slig didn't hear him as he slinked away.

Abe continued with his ridiculous sneaking animation until the sounds of the other mudokon's beating could no longer be heard. Abe broke back down to his regular walk but once again found himself stopped by the sight of yet another yellow lever.

There was another mudokon worker nearby. He was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor. Abe wanted to pull that lever so badly. _There's no way something bad would happen again,_ Abe thought.

Abe, being Abe, pulled the lever, and a meat saw came down and cut his coworker into ribbons. Pieces of mudokon meat went all over the place.

"Oops."

* * *

Abe had to sneak by a pair of sligs that were actually doing their jobs rather than sleeping. It was rather easy, all he had to do was stay in the shadows and sneak off the moment their backs were turned.

It's what was after the two patrolling sligs that challenged Abe. There was a fellow mudokon worker on the opposite side of an exposed electric current from where Abe was. Like all the others, this mudokon was also scrubbing away blood with a hand rag. _The glukkons don't really have us do all that much,_ Abe realized. Abe had done a fantastic job of accidentally killing his fellow mudokons so far, so the silly blue mudokon thought he could boost his karma a bit if he took some of his fellow workers and had them escape with him.

"Hello," Abe called to the other mudokon.

The worker stopped and greeted Abe. "Hello."

"Follow me."

"Okay." The mudokon started walking right towards Abe, and right through the exposed electrical current. The mudokon worker was vaporized, there wasn't even a corpse left.

"Oops." Abe face-palmed. He had no idea why the other mudokon simply didn't just walk around the electric current. Abe hardly thought it fair that this particular death could be blamed on him. Things were going badly; it was as if some unseen force wanted him to mess up and get every mudokon working at Rupture Farms killed.

This time Abe got as serious as he could be: he didn't pull any more levers, he didn't talk to any of the other mudokons, and he expertly snuck past the rest of the slig guards. He had to be nearing an exit soon.

Abe walked past a LED screen where a message scrolled across it's bar: _Only 1,236 work related accidents this month. Keep up the good work!_

* * *

That a mudokon had just listened in on a private board meeting provided further proof that Rupture Farms should replace their mudokons with labor droids. A worker had learned the glukkons' secret, and was now on the run. If word got out the glukkons could be faced with a full-scale revolt. That was something Molluck intended to avoid. The CEO of Rupture Farms called an emergency meeting with other major department heads.

Molluck and his slig assistant had gone to an even more private meeting room hidden away in the main hub of FeeCo Depot, the main transportation company of the Magog Cartel. The circular room was bathed in a faint but eerie green glow.

Attendees of the special emergency meeting included General Dripik, the leader of the slig army and his second-in-command the slig Commander Kremlo. The slig commander stood out as he wore a black top hat over his visor mask and also wore fingerless black biker gloves. Vice President Aslik was present, dressed sharply as ever. The trains of FeecoDepot always ran on time thanks to Aslik's hard work. And the career-obsessed Director Phleg, head boner at Bonewerkz, rounded out the group.

"I'm pissed," Molluck muttered so quietly he was barely audible.

"We've been so successful in fooling those stinkin' slaves. Most of the idiots think they're just employees," Aslik hissed.

"If this Abe guy starts talking to the other slaves, it could be a real problem," Director Phleg said, "so what are we gonna do about it? Huh, what?"

"I dunno, panic?" General Dripik offered.

"No, you idiot!" Aslik snapped, "we're gonna lock up everything so tight, that Abe guy'd have to be invisible to get out!"

"Don't worry," Commander Kremlo joined in the conversation for the first time. "I'll send out my best sligs to track him down."

"That won't be enough." Molluck shook his head.

"My sligs will get him," Kremlo promised.

"It's not just this one mudokon," Molluck continued, "we need to deal with the problem at its source. The remaining free mudokons hiding in the wilderness."

"I can deal with them as well," Commander Kremlo stated.

"We don't have enough troops to guard all Magog facilities and hunt down the tree huggers," General Dripik said, "too many sligs have been shipped off-world for the Separatist army."

"That's why we're going to hire some outside help," Molluck said.

"Sounds expensive," Phleg was wary of risking too much money.

"We will only need to hire them once. And when they succeed the problem will be over," Molluck's eyes seemed to glow a shade brighter.

"Who are you going to hire?" Kremlo asked.

"There's a certain group of elite mercenary bounty hunters I had in mind," Molluck said with an evil grin.

* * *

Trying to find a way out of Rupture Farms had been a little disorienting. Abe wasn't quite sure which way was out, leaving the premises of Rupture Farms is not something the mudokon slaves often did.

Abe rolled under a pipe and accidentally fell off a ledge down into an open meat barrel on a moving assembly line.

"Uhh, yuck." Abe poked his head out of the barrel and tried to shake off the meat bits that now covered him. The mudokon wasn't paying attention and a hanging overhead pipe smashed against his head.

The blue mudokon was knocked back into the barrel just as it past a pair of slig guards. The two guards thought they heard something and turned to look and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The two sligs went back to their conversation.

When the barrel had moved on, Abe popped back up again. He was oblivious that his clumsiness and inattention had just saved him from being caught. Abe started to rock the barrel back and forth until it fell off the assembly line.

Abe was miraculously able to land on his feet. The barrel smashed down beside him, splaying meat and broken wood about the floor. The barrel would have crushed Abe had it made contact with the spindly slave.

Abe's near death experience didn't shake him. If he didn't keep moving the sligs would find him and kill him. He had seen too much. Abe had to get away, and he was now that much closer to freedom. Abe kept going and saw that he had made it to the stockyards that surrounded Rupture Farms.

Navigating through the stockyards proved to be easier than the factory complex. Abe just had to make sure he didn't move when a motion sensor passed over him, and make sure that he didn't fall down into the animal pens. It was a simple enough challenge.

The pens housed the shadowy figures of paramites and scrabs, which were of course the main ingredients for paramite pies and scrab cakes. Abe found it curious that there were a few mudokon workers cleaning some of the animal pens… while the animals were still in them.

As soon as Abe got near, the animals would suddenly charge at the workers in the pens and kill them. This happened a total of three times: in two separate instances a scrab had gored a mudokon to death and then trampled the corpse, the other time a single mudokon was mauled by a trio of paramites.

_Not my fault those schmucks were in the pens with the animals,_ Abe thought. It had almost seemed like the sole purpose of mudokons was to die gruesome deaths.

* * *

Abe was able to get through the stockyards without getting caught. Next was the Free-Fire Zone, an almost no-man's land (though there were plenty of slig patrols). If anyone could claim responsibility for the Free-Fire Zone it would be the industrialists.

The shadows provided by the generosity of the night gave Abe all he needed in order to slip past the sligs and slogs. There were even a few landmines scattered about, but they proved to be no threat as long as Abe paid attention to where he was walking. The mines were easy to see in the dark as they had glowing red lights emanating from them.

There were no mudokons here to accidentally get killed. The slaves of Rupture Farms were not allowed to go this far out.

Abe had just gotten past some slogs and was walking along the edge of a cliff when a strange sight captured his attention. One of Oddworld's moons was before him, and it had an enormous crater in it the shape of Abe's paw. The sky wasn't usually so clear and beautiful. Abe spent most of his life around Rupture Farms, and the pollution kept him from ever seeing a clear view of the sky. The air was no longer clogged with thick smog. The industrial light pollution no longer blotted out the stars in the sky. It was stunning that he had to travel so little to see such a dramatic change of view.

Abe lifted his hand up to the moon, matching it to the moon's crater. Enamored with the sight, Abe didn't pay attention to how close he had gotten to the edge of the cliff. The ground started to give way and collapsed before Abe could move to safety. The poor mudokon fell down the cliff and smashed his head.

Darkness began to consume Abe. When all life in the world seemed to go out, a light cut through the hopelessness. A being appeared through the light. It took Abe a second to realize it was a mudokon. He wore an incredibly large, regal-looking red mask. Abe had never seen a mudokon look so majestic before.

"You are dead," the Big Face declared. He made a gesture with his hands and Abe's body was lifted off the ground by supernatural forces.

"The land is changing. In imbalance at best. Your fate is to rescue the rest." Big Face started drawing symbols into the loose dirt with his staff. Visions of paramites and scrabs living in nature invaded Abe's mind. "Paramites and scrabs were sacred once. Now Rupture Farms turns them into lunch. They live in the temples. It's where they still nest. Facing these creatures is to be your test."

Abe got back to his feet and looked around. The mysterious shaman had disappeared.

"Whoa…" Abe saw two large mudokon statues with a tall stone passageway in-between them. Two torches were lit, inviting the runaway to enter. Bats flew overhead as the mudokon rushed to start his journey.


	6. Aliens on Oddworld

**Chapter 6: Aliens on Oddworld**

Oddworld was many things to many people. Species such as the glukkons, mudokons, and sligs called it home. The peoples of the Confederacy of Independent Systems considered it venerable generator of tasty treats. The Galactic Republic considered it a backwater little world that was stupidly shortsighted for joining with the Separatist movement. There was another group that had a new use for Oddworld. The newcomers saw it as an environment where they could hunt.

An alien ship approached Oddworld. It was not a trading vessel from the CIS, nor was it a warship from the Republic, or even a lone quarian ship looking for salvage. It was a ship cloaked in complete invisibility, both to the naked eye and to all sorts of modern sensors. It was a ship that belonged to a group that had kept themselves hidden from the rest of the civilized Galaxy for countless generations.

A smaller transport ship departed from the larger one. No one would know as both ships were cloaked. The smaller transport ship came down into Oddworld's atmosphere.

Only when the transport ship landed in the shadowy depths of the Free-Fire Zone did it deactivate its cloaking device. A small ramp extended down from the alien ship to the black ground. Soon small machines were filing out down the ramp.

The machines were little more than automated platforms mounted on treads. They could hardly be classified as droids, not that their owners accepted the classification of what the rest of the Galaxy considered a droid.

But the machines themselves were not important; it was what the machines were carrying that was so crucial. On top of each treaded platform was a large leathery egg. The machines' sole purpose was to spread the eggs about the Free-Fire Zone.

The inhabitants of Oddworld had no idea of what was soon to befall them.

* * *

The small army of slig security guards scoring Rupture Farms and the surrounding area were on the lookout for a mudokon fugitive, not alien invaders.

One of these sligs was named Zal. He had been assigned to survey an area of Rupture Farms' stockyards. The slig didn't think that the mudokon runaway would be hiding out around pens full of paramites and scrabs. That would be an unbelievably stupid thing to do, but then mudokons were exceptionally stupid. In any case Zal was sure his assignment was ultimately pointless as enough time had passed that he was sure the mudokon had escaped Rupture Farms by now (or gotten himself killed trying to escape).

As long as Zal looked like he was doing his job, he was sure no one would bother him. For he wasn't exactly looking for the mudokon fugitive, he was looking for his partner, who had gone missing a few minutes earlier.

"Why can't that moron ever stay focused and pay attention?" Zal muttered. The glukkon bosses and the higher-ranking sligs were not happy at the moment, and Zal wanted nothing more than to do his damn job and fly under the radar. But his partner just had to go around rocking the boat. And now was definitely not the time to be doing that.

Zal suddenly froze in shock. He saw something he truly didn't expect to see. He would have been less surprised if he had found the fugitive. What Zal saw spelled death and destruction for him… and all of Oddworld.

It was a figure clad in white armor, clearly human in shape. A long-barreled blaster rifle was gripped in his hands. A T-visor was plastered over his helmet. It was a Republic clone trooper! Even though the Galactic Republic had never invaded Oddworld, there was always the threat that they one day might. Oddworld had officially allied itself with the CIS after all. Even the slig security guards that had never left their homeworld before knew what clone troopers looked like; Zal even recognized that this clone was wearing the older Phase I armor.

The slig instantaneously snapped up his T-1 assault rifle and squeezed the trigger. Zal didn't think; he merely acted. The substandard training he had received had actually kicked in and worked. It was as if Zal was a real soldier.

A maelstrom of bullets splayed into the clone's pristine white armor. Zal kept his trigger finger down, not caring how many bullets he used. Everything turned into some sort of unreal nightmare show. The clone didn't fall down dead. He seemly to just eat the bullets as if he were some bullet-munching monster. _But clone armor is supposed to be worthless!_ Zal didn't know what to do, so he kept firing.

Over the roar of his rifle, Zal could hear laughing! But it wasn't coming from the clone. Then the slig suddenly figured out what had happened. He stopped shooting. The clone was still standing there, not doing a damn thing.

Zal listened for the laughter and made his way towards the source.

"You buttwipe!" Zal yelled at the slig partially hidden behind a pair of barrels.

The other slig was laughing so hard he stumbled as he moved past the barrels. He fell to the floor, still laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face!"

"Yeah, well you didn't see it either." Of everything that had happened, Zal showing a facial expressing wasn't one of them. Zal always thought Krunch was a weirdo. Sligs always wore their masks to help them with the difficulties of breathing polluted air. Zal knew it, Krunch knew it, everyone knew it.

"This is why you're not in the Separatist army yet." Zal picked up the holoprojector and switched it off. He tossed it into one of the animal pens.

"Hey! That was expensive!" Krunch complained.

"Are you done being stupid? Because have an escapee to look out for."

"You know I'll be stupid! Forever!"

"Will you knock it off? Could you be serious for one day? Just one day! We've all had enough of your practical jokes. You keep this crap up and you'll find yourself without any friends!"

"I was just joking."

"Well it stopped being funny a long time ago. You're lucky Commander Kremlo didn't report you for that shit you pulled last week. If General Dripik found out that was you, you would have been sent to Lady Skillya!"

"I was just trying to have some fun…"

"You had your fun. Now it's time for work. We just gotta be on the lookout for that runaway. Come on, we gotta get back to our patrol."

"Fiiiiiine." Krunch moaned. Krunch had always been more individualistic… and weird for as long as Zal had known him. Krunch was enamored with the galaxy beyond Oddworld. He was always using his spare moolah to buy off-world trinkets to play around with. Krunch had a slightly higher IQ than most other sligs. He was always trying to figure out how different pieces of technology worked. Krunch had even managed to successfully alter the color of his mask's visor from red to violet. If it weren't for his eccentricities getting him in trouble Krunch would have been on the fast track to be shipped off-world into the Separatist Droid Army. What really stung was the fact that Krunch _wanted_ to go.

The pair paused and looked at the message that scrolled across a LED screen mounted on the wall. _A little hard work never killed anyone important._

"A little hard work never killed anyone important." Zal started to laugh.

"Do they really think that motivates anyone?" Krunch asked.

"It works on the mudokons."

"Right. Hard to believe anything is that stupid."

"They apparently are. I'm going on a smoke break," Zal said.

"Okay."

Krunch continued on with the patrol on his own. After what he had pulled with the holoprojector, Krunch figured Zal deserved a smoke break. Maybe he should lay off the practical jokes for a while. He certainly didn't want to lose his friend. He had few friends as it was since a lot of the other sligs weren't as forgiving of his eccentricities. Krunch and Zal were technically brothers, both being sons of the slig queen Lady Skillya. Given how few slig queens there were, most sligs were siblings. Friendship had greater meaning than brotherhood to them. Most sligs were brothers and that was just a biological fact of life, but they could _choose_ their friends… and Krunch didn't have many.

As Krunch moved on ahead on his own he noticed that something was wrong in one of the animal pens. Chiefly, he didn't see any movement. Paramites and scrabs always moved around a lot in their pens. Krunch knew it was stupid to simply go in and have a look around, but if anything attacked him he did have his T-1 assault rifle ready. The slig cautiously went in and started to look around. Not only did he not see any movement, he didn't see any of the animals. _Did the mudokon runaway free some of the animals before he left?_

Krunch then saw something on the ground. It looked like some sort of beige spider or scorpion. It didn't move. Upside down with its legs curled up Krunch assumed the creature was dead. Just to be sure he poked it with the business end of his rifle a few times. He wasn't certain what it was but he knew he had never seen an animal like it before, and that it wasn't supposed to be in the pens.

A closer inspection of the nearby area revealed the animals were indeed in the pen, they were all shoved up against the gates, hidden in shadow, all dead. _Why are they up against the gates? Where they trying to get away from something?_

The slig soon noticed that there were several other of the dead spider-things scattered around the pen and that there were a few dead mudokon workers lying around dead as well. And Krunch noticed something else he couldn't explain. Upon a closer look, the corpses of the mudokons and animals had holes in them. One hole per corpse, coming out of the chest cavity (or what passed for the chest cavity depending on the victim).

* * *

A beat up YT-1300 freighter known as the _Millennium Falcon_ touched down on one of FeeCo Depot's few landing pads. Unlike the other ship that had clandestinely landed on the planet, this one had permission to arrive.

Commander Kremlo and two slig guards waited as the old freighter's loading ramp came down. When metal hit metal the ship's occupants started to disembark.

The first to come down from the _Millennium Falcon_ was as human. The man had a mismatched right eye and a prominent facial scar.

Next to get off was a droid with rusty red plating. Kremlo couldn't tell what model it was. The droid's sensors gave off an eerie orange glow. It somehow looked like a protocol droid, but a protocol droid being in a mercenary group didn't make any sense.

Following the first droid was another one, this one Kremlo was sure was a protocol droid. _What is with these weird droids? _The slig commander wondered.

Last to get off the ship was a gand.

"Zaeed Massani?" Kremlo addressed the human.

"Yeah, that's me. I hear you have a rebellion that needs putting down."

Commander Kremlo was considered the best of the best among his people on Oddworld but when compared against galactic legends such as Zaeed Massani he didn't seem like much.

"So you've read the assignment then?"

"Of course we have. You hired the best in the Galaxy, not some goddam rookies."

"Good."

"We work better in small groups," the gand spoke up.

"Not a problem. You've been given operational freedom to work independently of my troops."

"Will you have a problem following our orders?" the gray protocol droid asked.

"No. I will command my troops but will defer to your judgment. That is why we brought you here, after all."

"Alright, let's get to work then," Zaeed said.

A slig came up to the group. "Commander, you have call."

"Tell them I'm busy."

"It's General Dripik, sir."

"Alright, alright. I'll get it. Excuse me, gentlemen. I'll be right back."

The rusty red droid turned to Zaeed. "Commentary: I rather like these meatbags, Master. They do their best to emulate droids. An admiral quality for any meatbag who wishes to better themselves." The statement was a reference to the masks and mechanical pants the sligs wore.

"You going soft on me, HK?"

"Objection: Certainly not, Master. It would be impossible and also highly upsetting if my fine plating were to suddenly start turning into squishy organic parts. The mere idea of such a transformation makes my circuits spark with dread."

"Someone must have installed something into you at some point to inspire such an imagination." Zaeed crossed his arms.

"Statement: So this story comes with _The Price of Revenge_ DLC pack it seems."

"Shut it, HK," Zaeed grumbled.

"Explanation: Master! I was merely going to remark that the fact you were ever downloadable content in the first place is simply insulting to a man of your impressive status. You should have been included in the game right from the very start."

Zuckuss stared at HK-47 for a second before turning to 4-LOM. Many thought the gand to be strange but Zuckuss thought he was relatively normal when compared to the ancient assassin droid.

Commander Kremlo finally returned.

"What the hell is going on?" Zaeed demanded.

"Something's happened," Commander Kremlo said, "looks like you have a new assignment."

"Don't you try to change the job on me."

"We aren't. We're just adding in an extra one. This is an emergency. You will be properly compensated of course. We'll pay whatever your special rate is."

"What is this extra assignment?"

"An odd disturbance has been reported in the stockyards. We may have an… _otherworldly_ problem. Perhaps you four may have some incite as to what is going on, what with you being such well-traveled off-worlders and all."

Commander Kremlo and his guards led the mercenary group to one of FeeCo Depot's many trains. They got on board and headed for Rupture Farms.

* * *

Krunch and Zal watched as Commander Kremlo approached with the group of mercenaries.

"Should have known you would be involved in this," the slig commander muttered when he saw Krunch. "You always had a habit of attracting trouble."

"This wasn't my fault," Krunch said.

"Over here." Zal pointed towards the one of the dead spider-scorpions.

"The paramites, scrabs and mudokons around here are all dead," Krunch explained, "they're all fulla holes, like something exploded out of 'em."

"You know what these things are?" Kremlo asked.

"Never seen anything like this," Zaeed said. "Zuckuss, you know anything about this?"

"No." The gand's answer was sort and simple.

"HK-47, 4-LOM, do you two have any information on this thing in your databanks?"

"Negative," 4-LOM answered.

"Apology: No, Master. I'm afraid I have no information on these creatures."

"Fucking fantastic."

* * *

Molluck once again had found himself holding yet another emergency meeting with the other high-ranking executives. It was a trend that did not bode well for future short-term profitability. A rash of violence and rumors of aliens around Rupture Farms was starting to create a panic. The glukkons knew the recent reports of violence wasn't instigated by the mudokon fugitive known as Abe because the mudokon workers made of the majority of those hurt, missing or dead.

"First we had a single fugitive that _might_ incite a rebellion, now we're dealing with an alien infection, this just keeps getting worse." Director Phleg shook his head.

"This is getting out of hand," Vice-President Aslik agreed. "Not even the off-worlders know what these creatures are."

"The bounty hunters won't be enough for this," General Dripik said.

"I'm bringing in the droid army for this," Molluck stated.

"Is that really necessary?" General Dripik asked.

"What else can we do?" Phleg asked. "If we don't deal with this now, Lady Margaret will have all our heads on a platter. Death would derail my career."

"We're not bringing in General Grievous, are we?" General Dripik disliked General Grievous with great intensity. Grievous tended to have that effect on other high-ranking military officers.

"No," Aslik said.

"We're bringing in General OOM-9. He'll deal with our problem," Molluck answered.


	7. Military-Industrial Complex

**Chapter 7: Military-Industrial Complex**

The 8th Fleet of the Confederacy of Independent Systems hung around the planet Oddworld. Various kinds of transports settled down on the world. General OOM-9 was setting up a full military blockade around Rupture Farms and the surrounding areas. Whatever the alien infection was, OOM-9 was determined not to let to spread.

While General OOM-9 was off giving orders to the army, Commander EEK-176 was sent to meet up with Commander Kremlo and the group of bounty hunters to see what they had come up with.

A gray and blue _Sheathipede_-class transport shuttle touched down on one the landing pads of the Feeco Deport transportation hub.

Commander Kremlo greeted Commander EEK-176 and his entourage of troops. The slig commander felt his job had turned from military officer to greeter lately.

Katen cracked her neck from side to side, stretching out from the shuttle ride. Bored with the formalities, Katen, Yayap and Zakap left EEK-176 with the slig commander and went over to a nearby vidscreen, watching as a news report was just starting.

"_The Magog On the March. News you need. Our main story: Due to the sudden infestation of foreign life forms in and around the Free-Fire Zone, all travel to Rupture Farms is prohibited. Special exceptions are only permitted by direct order of high-ranking executives: President Molluck, General Dripik, Vice-President Aslik, and Director Phleg. Anyone trying to enter Rupture Farms without special consent will be shot on sight. Survivors will be shot again. The Separatist Droid Army has been deployed to handle the situation. Anyone who witnesses anything out of the ordinary should immediately report it to either the droid army or slig security."_

"Huh. Looks like we got us a bug hunt," Zakap said when the newscaster slig finished the report and the show went to a commercial.

"Could be a nice change of pace from killing clones." Katen crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Killing clones never really gets old to me," Zakap answered. "Something about an entire army of enemies that all scream the same way when they die is so funny."

"Makes no difference to me." Yayap had no real preference for who or what they fought as long as they made it out alive.

"We better go back before EEK-176 brow beats me for looking unprofessional," Katen grumbled as she stretched out the hamstrings in her legs.

"You're all dismissed." EEK-176 quickly waved Katen and the two unggoy away as soon as they got within speaking distance.

"Okay, now what?" Yayap asked.

"Let's try and find some fun," Katen chimed.

"I'm gonna go make sure everything's squared away with the squad," Zakap said.

"What? Turning down an offer of fun?" Yayap teased his friend.

"I have a feeling we're gonna have a serious fight ahead of us soon." The special ops unggoy walked off on his own.

"Alright then." Katen turned to Yayap. "You coming with me?"

"Sure."

"Thank you. This would suck going by myself."

"Any ideas on what you want to do?"

Katen crossed her arms behind her back and cocked her head to the side, giving a mock impression that she was deep in thought. "We are on Oddworld. Let's try and find some of their famous food."

"Sure…"

"OH! Sorry." Katen blurted out. She pulled her arms out back in front of her and started making gestures over her mouth. Yayap thought she was trying to pantomime a gasmask.

"The thing! I forget what it's called. You know…"

"The food processor attachment?"

"YES! The FPAs you guys need. Sorry I forgot. You don't have one on you and I doubt they'd have one at the food court. Going back to get one would take too long…"

"Don't worry about it, Major."

"Please, Yayap. Will you call me Ashley? We've worked together… how many years now? It's become clear to me you aren't going to die in battle anytime soon or you would have done it by now. So we might as well be friends."

"Thanks. I think…"

"Take it as a complement."

"Yes ma'am."

"Look, I don't have a lot of friends. I can make friends with droids because you can put them back together good as new if they get shot up. People tend to die in war in a bit more permanent way. But you and that squad of yours always makes it through."

"Yeah… we've done alright so far."

"You're surviving. That's a lot better than a lot of other people. Come on, there's gotta be something fun around here we can do."

The pair went around searching for fun but could find none. Fun times could have been had if Katen were not so picky. They had come across a tourist message board that recommended having fun with soulstorm brew and farts, but Katen was having none of that.

At the very least the view was nice. Katen and Yayap decided to take a break and just watch the trains go by.

Katen plopped on her butt with a thud before throwing her back against the floor in a fit of frustration. "What's wrong with me, Yayap? What's become of my life when I can't even find something fun do to with what little free time I'm given?"

"I don't think it's you, Major… err, Ashley." Yayap corrected himself when the human quickly glared at him for not using her name like she asked. "I think it's just this place. We're just in a big transportation hub right now, right? There really can't be that many fun things to do." The dirtier depths of Yayap's mind briefly drifted to a few fun things they could do.

"I know!" Katen rolled over on her stomach and leaned her right elbow against the floor, holding her hand up into the air. "Arm wrestle me!"

"Uhhh… alright." The unggoy likewise got to the floor. Yayap was impressed at the request. The typical unggoy was strong enough to tear a human to pieces with their bare hands. Katen was a skilled fighter but when it came to pure physical strength she wouldn't stand a chance against Yayap. The fact that she still wanted to challenge Yayap anyway filled the unggoy with a sense of excitement.

The two locked hands. "Readysetgo!" Katen immediately tried to bring his hand down. She knew she couldn't win by force and thus opted for the element of surprise.

Katen was able to get Yayap's hand partially to the floor before the unggoy turned the tide and sent her hand smashing into the metal deck.

"You must be a hardcore bitch to go around arm wrestling unggoy for fun." The pair turned to see where the new voice was coming from.

"That is correct." Katen wiggled her eyebrows at the two newcomers: a human and a rusty red droid. Yayap got to his feet. He could smell the scent of death and rusty metal from the newcomers. They gave off a vaguely ominous vibe.

"I didn't expect to see too many humans here."

"Yeah, they don't get many visitors around here. Name's Ashley Katen. I'm with the Separatist Droid Army."

"Zaeed Massani."

"_The_ Zaeed Massani? The most expensive mercenary in the Galaxy? Damn, someone's pulling out all the stops for this mission." Katen had been through many battles and seen a lot of fucked up shit over the years, but Zaeed Massani was on a whole other level. There were lots of famous mercenaries and bounty hunters in recent years: Jango Fett, Cad Bane, Durge, but none of them came anywhere close to the level of renown Massani had. The man was almost more a legend than an actual person.

Katen slapped at the floor. "Yayap, give me a hand here." The unggoy took her hand and helped the officer to her feet.

"I take it you're here to deal with the infestation?"

"Sorta." Katen shrugged. "What, you're not?"

"We were originally hired to put down a rebellion of natives. What's taking your army so long? Our mission's been put on hold until this new problem is resolved."

"Dunno. We're just waiting for our orders. Nothing much I can really do to help you out. Hey… you wouldn't know of anything to do around here?"

"We heard there was a marksmanship competition over at the shooting range at the Slig Barracks. That's where we're headed."

"Sounds mildly interesting…"

* * *

From what OOM-9 had learned of the situation so far, they had been one other case like the situation Oddworld was facing now. A recent report from Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation mentioned a creature very similar to the dead spider-scorpions the sligs had found around the stockyards of Rupture Farms.

Weyland-Yutani officials had also made the connection and had contacted the droid general about a joint operation. Information traveled fast, and OOM-9 was sure that there were officials in both Weyland-Yutani and the Magog Cartel that didn't know how to keep their mouths shut.

The battle droid general was onboard the _Lucrehulk_-class droid control ship the _Magna Musai_. He was so busy directing troop movements that he hadn't had the chance to go down to the planet himself yet. The _Magna Musai_ was not the flagship of the 8th Fleet, but it had a larger bridge than the cramped Trade Federation cruiser the _Karajor_. In any case it made little difference if OOM-9 commanded troops from the true flagship or not. OOM-9 was a command droid, and most of his officers were droids. He could control and direct his army from pretty much wherever the hell he pleased, which was why he could directly participate in battle so often since it didn't have a negative effect on his abilities to lead like it might for organic officers.

"Weyland-Yutani is interested in the recent abnormalities on Oddworld." Carter Burke spoke to General OOM-9 via a large vidscreen.

"And why is that?" OOM-9 demanded.

"A similar abnormality struck one of our mining freighters years ago."

"And why are you interested in Oddworld now?"

"We have a colony on the planet where Ripley said the alien came from. New information in dealing with any potential issues regarding the life form would be immensely helpful. We can use Oddworld as a test run and learn from any mistakes before something happens on LV-426. We could send troops to assist you."

"Very well. As long as the Magog Cartel accepts your assistance." OOM-9 wirelessly downloaded the company file on Ripley. "I want an officer to secure Ellen Ripley as an advisor."

"As you wish, General." The vidscreen shut off.

General OOM-9 was certain the Weyland-Yutani Corporation had ulterior motives from what Carter Burke had just told him. The battle droid didn't know what they were up to, but he would play their little game for the time being. He knew they weren't stupid enough to do anything that would adversely affect the CIS and that's all that mattered.

* * *

Lieutenant Gorman and Burke arrived at Ripley's apartment on Gateway Station. The hallway they stood in was a painfully creamy white that was so clean you could eat off the walls, if you could somehow manage a way to keep food on them. Burke pressed the doorbell.

A faint buzzing in the apartment alerted Ripley that she had visitors. She got up to see who it was. She wasn't used to getting visitors as she had no living family or friends left. Ripley had a good idea of who this might be.

"Hiya Ripley. This is Lieutenant Gorman of the Colonial Marine Corps…"

Ripley quickly shut the door in Burke's face.

"Ripley we have to talk. There is a problem. A planet has reported sightings the same creature you describe, and it's not LV-426."

Ripley let to two men in.

"I don't believe this. You guys throw me to the wolves and now you want my help? Forget it, it's not my problem."

"Can I finish?"

"No." Ripley quickly cut Burke off. "There's no way."

"Ripley, you wouldn't be going in with the troops. I can guarantee your safety," Gorman promised.

"These Colonial Marines are very tough hombres. They're packing state-of-the-art firepower. There's nothing they can't handle," Burke said.

Ripley sighed.

"Lieutenant, am I right?"

"That's true. We've been trained to deal with situations like this."

"Well, then you don't need me. I'm not a soldier."

"Yeah, but we don't know exactly what's going on out there. The Separatist army's leader wants you there as an advisor," Burke said, "and that's all."

"What's your interest in all this?" Ripley asked.

"We're working very closing with the Magog Cartel. We were going to set up and distribute some of their food products to Earth and her colonies. But with this new problem…"

"Look I don't have time for this. I gotta get to work."

"Oh right. I heard you're working the cargo docks."

"That's right."

"Running loaders and forklifts. That sort of thing?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Nothing. I think it's great that you're keeping busy. And I know it's the only thing that you could get. There's nothing wrong with it. What would you say if I could get you reinstated as a flight officer? The company's already agreed to pick up your contract."

"If I go?"

"Yeah, if you go. Come on, that's a second chance, kiddo. I think for you, personally it would be the best thing in the world to get out there and face this thing. Get back on the horse-"

"Spare me, Burke. I've had my psych evaluation this month."

"I know. I've read it. You wake up every night, sheets soaking with sweat-"

"I said no, and I mean it! Now please leave. I'm not going there, and I would not be any good to you if I did."

"Okay. Would you do me a favor? Think about it."

"Thanks for the coffee." Gorman put his officer's hat back on and turned to leave.

When the two had left Ripley went over and pet Jones while he ate his food. She really didn't have the time or patience to deal with Weyland-Yutani's shit. She had a whole new galaxy full of aliens to learn about. So far she had only seen them on the extranet. There weren't any aliens on Gateway Station that she had seen, though she was firmly in the heart of Systems Alliance territory. Back in her day before she was frozen there wasn't even a Systems Alliance. Ripley was bound to see aliens sooner or later though, but she'd hoped to avoid them being the creature she fought on the _Nostromo_. She had seen enough of that thing to last her a lifetime.

* * *

"Goddamnsonuvabitch!"

Yayap though Katen was going to hit him. To Yayap's surprise she ultimately didn't. He had seen her commit acts of minor violence against her friends before but she held back with him. Yayap was sure if one of the major's battle droid friends had been around they would have been hit.

Katen was pissed having placed third in the marksmanship competition. Zaeed Massani placed first and his droid HK-47 ranked second. Yayap earned fourth. All the slig participants were none too happy either with the top four places all being taken by off-worlders.

"Mockery: Perhaps your optical sensors require servicing. Then you might be able to hit the broad side of a bantha."

"Shut it, droid! It wasn't a fair match. The T-1 rifles they made us use don't have a scope. I'm sure your sensors can zoom in, can't they? You cheater!"

"Objection: That doesn't explain how my master was able to place first."

Katen had already thought about Zaeed's unusual skill. She had noticed the mercenary had a prominent facial scar and mismatched eyes, leading her to believe that Zaeed had a cybernetic eye and had used it to cheat. It was somewhat difficult to blame him; Katen would have done the same thing if presented the opportunity. She ultimately didn't voice her theory and just chose to insult HK-47 instead.

Zaeed just stood back and laughed. Seeing the Separatist officer and his assassin droid go at it was reward enough for winning first place, though he was still going to keep the cash reward.

Major Katen devolved in a large groan before ultimately giving up bickering with HK-47. She turned to Yayap. "You didn't lose to me on purpose, did you?"

"What? No. I just don't have much experience with the T-1 assault rifle."

"See? That's what I'm talking about!"

* * *

General OOM-9 was still nested on the command bridge of the _Magna Musai_. Troop placement was going well, but there were a lot of troops to place. They had to make sure the foreign aliens didn't get the chance to spread. It would be a disaster if the entire planet ended up being exposed. The fun hadn't started yet, and the battle droid general wasn't planning on missing it. But work had to come before play.

"Lieutenant Gorman. I trust you have acquired Ellen Ripley as I had requested?" OOM-9 could see that Gorman looked nervous. Even though it was only through a computer screen and reading human facial expressions wasn't OOM-9's specialty the battle droid could tell the human was anxious.

"I'm sorry, General. But I was unable to convince Ripley to join us."

General OOM-9 was not accustomed to failure and he was not used to being denied things he requested. "Then I will send one of my officers to deal with the problem for you. Prepare to receive Commander Karl Zako. Your systems will be updated with the necessary information. After he acquires Warrant Officer Ripley he will act as an official observer of the _Sulaco_ until it reaches Oddworld."

"Yes, General." The video transmission came to an end.

General OOM-9 was not impressed. The Colonial Marines were supposed the represent the best of the best of the Systems Alliance military. Yet Gorman failed in a simple non-combat task. The fact that the Systems Alliance was not utterly obliterated during the Citadel-Covenant War surprised OOM-9. Or it may have been that the Systems Alliance had been so soundly beaten by the Covenant during the war that they were still trying to recover. Either way it made no difference to OOM-9. The Systems Alliance, or for that matter the whole of the different Citadel governments posed no threat to the CIS. Though they would be useful if they could be pushed into war with the Galactic Republic.

* * *

During the trip to Gateway Station, Commander Zako had studied the files on Gorman and Ripley. If what the file on Ripley was to be believed, she was an exceptionally resourceful individual. The file on Gorman was much less impressive. Gorman was a desk jockey, the very type of officer Commander Karl Zako despised. Zako was always marching on the frontline with his troops. He was not surprised that an officer like Gorman couldn't handle his simple assignment. If one were being fair, Gorman was more inexperienced than a lifelong desk jockey, though Zako was hardly one to be fair. In the past, Commander Zako would not have been so harsh, but after fighting on the frontlines for three years that the Clone Wars had been going on had hardened his opinion on the issue of officers that didn't fight alongside their troops.

The shuttle landed in the hangar bay and Zako disembarked, the battle droids 3B3-888 and SSA-719 at his sides.

Lieutenant Gorman was waiting to greet the Separatist officer. "Commander Zako, welcome to Gateway Station."

"What's your problem, Gorman?" Zako snapped at the other officer, "You had one task, just one. All you needed to do was get Ripley to act an advisor. And you couldn't even do that?"

"She said no."

"That's not the answer the General wanted."

"She wouldn't go for it. It's not like we can kidnap her. Well, what are you going to do now?"

"I'll handle this myself." Zako and his two droid bodyguards brushed past the Colonial Marines officer. "When the General wants something done, it gets done."

* * *

Commander Zako didn't bother taking off his officer's hat when he entered Ripley's apartment. 3B3-888 and SSA-719 waited out in the hallway. Zako didn't want Ripley to feel threatened. His own physical appearance was bad enough, adding in two skeletal-looking war droids wouldn't help him any.

"I've already said no once. Why do you people keep bothering me?" Ripley demanded.

"Because my commanding officer wants you as an advisor. And I'm not with the Colonial Marines. You will not be put in harm's way, I promise."

"Why does your boss want me?" Ripley looked at the officer's cybernetic eye.

"Because he believes your story. About how you killed one of those creatures, with no real weapons. You're a resourceful individual who can think on her feet. Better to have you there than just relying on your report on the aliens."

"You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study, not to bring back, but to wipe them out?"

"Yes. I'm a representative of the most powerful military the Galaxy has ever seen. Our military force is made up primarily of droids; we have no want or need to use these creatures as bio-weapons. Their presence have cut into the Magog Cartel's corporate profits. They are going to be exterminated."

"All right, I'm in," Ripley turned to Jones, "and you, you little shithead, you're staying here."

"That's not necessary. We are more than willing to accommodate Jones."

Ripley stared at the cyborg for a moment. "Alright."

Ripley realized that the CIS officer before her was likely not an Earth human or 'earther' as she learned they were often called. Ripley had no idea how there were already so many humans outside of Earth, and what was weirder was that there were humans all over the Galaxy that didn't originate from Earth at all. But she realized that from her perspective this CIS officer was the first actual alien she met face-to-face.

* * *

The _Sulaco_ was cruising through hyperspace. When the Colonial Marines military ship was nearing its intended destination the crew and the guests woke up and began their ritual complaining as they struggled to get squared away.

"They ain't paying us enough for this man." A marine groaned as he flopped out of bed.

"Not enough to wake up to your face, Drake."

"Man, Hicks. You look just how I feel."

"All right sweethearts, what are waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps." The de facto leader of the group, a sergeant by the name of Al Apone, was already wide-awake.

Zako gave a grunt of distaste as he forced himself from his bed. He was an officer in a superior military; it would look really bad if he couldn't even get out of bed. Being a high-ranking officer, Zako was used to having private sleeping quarters. But being a guest on the _Sulaco_ didn't entitle him to such perks. He had to sleep alongside the beds of Ripley and the rest of the Colonial Marines. It wasn't that he wasn't accustomed to sleeping near others; he often slept alongside sligs, unggoy and recharging battle droids when on the battlefield. He just wasn't used to sleeping near humans, especially so many in one place. The entire group was comprised of humans, except for Jones and the two battle droids.

"A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm," Apone continued, "every meal's a banquet, every paycheck a fortune, every formation a parade. I love the Corps!"

Zako was glad the sergeant was here. He was a real soldier, not like Gorman. Apone spoke volumes for the competency of the Colonial Marines in particular and the Systems Alliance in general. The Earth humans' military seemed just slightly less worthless than Zako previously believed.

"This floor is freezing."

"What do you want me to do? Fetch your slippers for you?"

"Gee, would you, sir? I'd like that."

"Look into my eye. Fall in people, come on, let's go."

"I hate this job."

"Alright, first assembly's in fifteen people, shag it."

Everyone slowly made their way over to their lockers to get dressed.

Zako got to his locker and started getting his stuff. He noticed a woman suddenly next to him. She was pulling her stuff out of the locker next to his.

He turned to look at her. She had pale skin and short black hair. Blacker than what looked natural.

She turned to look back at him.

"What's your story?"

"I'm here merely as an observer on behalf of the Confederacy of Independent Systems."

"Uh-huh. You like what you're observing?"

"Currently… yes." Zako was staring at the female soldier.

Ellen Ripley could hear some of the marines talk about her behind her back. From what little she picked up it was clear they didn't have much respect for her. She didn't give a fuck about what they thought; she had business with the Separatist officer. It looked like he was trying to hit on one of the female marines, and a particularly scour-looking one at that. Ripley was going to cut him short of his fun.

"Commander, can I have a word with you?"

"Sure, Ripley. What's the problem?"

"When you said you could accommodate Jones, I didn't realize that meant you just had a cat carrier."

"Blame the Colonial Marines, not me. Once we reach the 8th Fleet you will be given your own personal quarters where Jones can safely roam about. You will soon see the Confederacy is much more hospitable than the Systems Alliance."

* * *

In the mess hall Burke, Gorman, Ripley, and Zako sat at a different table from the rest of the marines. The rank and file troops were rather noisy while the 'officer's table' was relatively silent.

There was extra commotion from the marines' table as someone had goaded one of the crew into performing some sort of knife trick. The noise caught Ripley's attention and she watched what was about to unfold.

"Hey, what are you doing, man? Hey, what are you doing?" One of the marine's hands was being forcibly held flat down on the table.

"Come on, quit messing around, Drake. Bishop, hey man!"

"Do it, Bishop."

"Hey not me, man! Quit messing around!"

"Yeah, you."

"Trust me," the man with the knife said.

The man started stabbing at the table with a knife, hitting in-between the marine's fingers. The faster he went the more the marine screamed. The knife-wielder was moving at a superhuman speed.

"All right. Knock it off, knock it off," Apone said.

"Thank you." Bishop gave the knife back.

"Enjoy your meal."

"That wasn't funny, man."

Bishop went over to sit at the officer's table. Offering Gorman and Burke his food. Burke took it.

Bishop was playing with his fingers.

"I though you never miss, Bishop?" Burke asked.

Ripley turned over to look. She saw a single strand of milky white blood slowly ooze down Bishop's finger.

"You never said anything about an android being on board. Why not?" Ripley snapped.

"What's this shit?" Zako demanded. Burke wasn't sure what the Separatist was so pissed about, the guy worked with droids all the time.

"It… it never occurred to me. It's just common practice. We always have a synthetic on board."

"I prefer the term 'artificial person,' myself," Bishop said. "Is there a problem?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know I didn't even… Ripley's last trip out the synthetic… the artificial person malfunctioned," Burke explained.

Zako rolled his eyes. The term 'synthetic' was a common Citadel systems term for all artificial life, an umbrella term for droids, androids and cyborgs. If they had true artificial intelligence or just virtual intelligence, it didn't matter. In the Confederacy, they were more specific with the differences between droids, cyborgs and androids and between AI and VI.

"Malfunctioned?"

"There were some problems and a few deaths were involved."

"I'm shocked. Was it an older model?"

"The Hyperdyne System's 120-A2."

"That explains it. The A2s always were a bit twitchy. That could never happen now with our behavioral inhibitors."

Bishop tried offering Ripley some food. She quickly swatted the whole tray away and it clattered on the floor, garnering everyone's attention.

"You just stay away from me, Bishop. You got that straight?" Ripley was fed up with synthetics. At least with the two battle droids Zako brought Ripley knew just what to expect. It was the androids that pretended to masquerade as humans that pissed her off so damn much. The last android she worked with, Ash had pretended to be human during her mission on the _Nostromo_. That damn android had set the crew up to be infected by the xenomorph in the first place. Ash ultimately ended up trying to choke Ripley to death with a rolled up magazine.

"Guess she don't like the cornbread either," one of the marines from the other table said.

* * *

The hangar bay of the _Sulaco_ was roomy enough. There was plenty of space for the marines' Cheyenne dropship and the Separatist Sheathipede shuttle.

Lieutenant Gorman came in to address the troops before they got to work loading up the dropship.

"Squad, ten-hut! Officer on deck!" Apone announced.

"As you were."

"Quickly, quickly. Settle down. All right, listen up!" Apone barked.

"Morning marines. I'm sorry we didn't have time to brief you people before we left Gateway but-"

"Sir," one of the marines spoke up.

"What is it, Hicks?"

"Hudson, sir. He's Hicks."

"What's the question?"

"Is this gonna be another stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"

"All we know is that Rupture Farms and the surrounding area had been cordoned off by the droid army. And that a xenomorph may be involved."

"Excuse me, sir. A what?"

"A xenomorph."

"It's a bug hunt."

Gorman was clearly lacking in leadership skills and the marines he addressed clearly lacked any semblance of professionalism. It was apparent that Apone was the one keeping the whole thing from falling apart.

Commander Zako and his battle droid cronies were off the to side near their shuttle, snickering at the inferiority of the Colonial Marines. The trio of Separatists watched as Ripley tried to give the basic details of the report to the marines, only to be interrupted and doubted.

"Did they forget they're being observed?" 3B3-888 whispered to SSA-719 and Zako.

"They're an embarrassment," SSA-719 firmly stated.

"We could slaughter the whole lot of these fools right now," the B1 battle droid said.

"Of course you could," Zako smiled at 3B3-888, "they don't have their weapons right now."

Zako recalled reading Ripley's report. It was quite disturbing, to say the least.

"I really hope I don't have to deal with any face raping aliens. This is a job for you guys," the human CIS officer whispered to his two battle droid companions.

"Stop being such a coward, Commander," 3B3-888 said. The B1 battle droid thought it unusual that Zako was worried. The human had fought alongside his troops in countless battles. Maybe all the stress of war was finally getting to him.

"Sometimes cowardice is the appropriate response. Especially in the case of aliens that face fuck their victims in order to reproduce."

"Maybe the commander is just scared of being orally violated?" 3B3-888 offered to SSA-719.

"Maybe you don't care because you don't have a mouth." Zako crossed his arms.

"And maybe you wouldn't care if you had a backbone," the B1 droid offered back.

The human gave out a huff, unable to think of a quick comeback.

* * *

The marines finally got to work. Power loaders came to life, carrying warheads and crates around. Power loaders were an ingenious device, an exosuit designed for heavy lifting. Loader droids often cost workers their jobs, and anti-droid riots had happened periodically across the Galaxy. Power loaders required an operator to work but could still perform the duties of the droids. It was a nice compromise. People were able to keep their jobs. Though in some areas of the Galaxy (such as in the military factories of the CIS) loader droids still prevailed.

"I don't care if you are short, Hudson. Get it done," Sergeant Apone snapped. "How many more you got, Spunkmeyer?"

"Last one."

"Good, take it away."

"Why are you so hard on them?" Ripley asked Zako as they watched the Earth humans work. She had been aware of the CIS officer's contempt of the Colonial Marines for some time now.

"Because they're worthless meat puppets."

Ripley gave him a look indicating he should explain himself.

"It's true. The biggest lie perpetuated by all the militaries of the Galaxy is that their soldiers are highly trained specialists. Most military training manuals are written so even a child could understand them. You can teach almost any idiot to fire a gun. Whether or not they are effective is another matter. I've noticed over the years that earthers are particularly guilty of this. At least the Galactic Republic had the honesty to admit their own ineptitude and just start growing soldiers in factories… not that their half-wit clones are much better," Zako said matter-of-factly.

Feeling like a third wheel and not wanting to stick around the CIS officer and his battle droids any longer, Ripley offered to help and ended up driving one of the power loaders. The trio of Separatists just watched the action. They weren't going to lift a finger to help. The most they did was make sure Jones was loaded onboard their shuttle and was comfortable.

One of the power loaders approached Commander Zako and his two battle droids. Zako noticed it was the goth-looking marine chick that spoke to him in the locker room. He had gone through the marine dossiers earlier and learned that her name was Zoe Kennedy.

"The sight of a woman strapped into a power loader like that, makes me want to-" The heavy steps from the power loader prevented Zoe from hearing Zako's comment.

SSA-719 gripped Zako's shoulder. "Commander, we don't need you causing a diplomatic incident between the Systems Alliance and the Confederacy of Independent Systems."

"Relax, SSA-719. You know I'm not actually going to do anything that would jeopardize the mission."

"Yes, yes. We are aware that you would never do anything," the security battle droid replied.

"Okay, Captain Clanker, I've got a question for you," Zoe said as her power loader came to a halt before the trio of Separatists.

Zako thought about admonishing the soldier for her blatant disrespect, but thought better of it and instead indulged her. "That's Commander Clanker to you, Private."

"Whatever," Zoe grumbled, "I know rinth shit when I see it. You're the King of the Clankers, yet you have a problem with Bishop? I know what Ripley's deal is, but what's your major malfunction?" Zoe actually read Ripley's report it included that fact that an android had betrayed and tried to kill Ripley during the _Nostromo_ incident.

"You do know there is a difference between a droid and an android, correct?"

"Yeah, so what? You're a cyborg."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"So you have a problem with androids specifically?"

"Yes, we do," Commander Zako answered.

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Droids and organics can co-exist side by side in peace, not that you bigots in the Citadel systems would know anything of tolerance. Androids blur the line between droids and organics. They are manufactured… just like droids but seek to emulate organics in both thoughts and appearance. It's… unnatural."

"Unnatural? You have looked in a mirror recently, right?"

"There's nothing wrong with being a cyborg. A cyborg is nothing more than an organic that wishes to better themselves."

"So… organics can strive to be droids but droids cannot strive to be organics?"

"No matter how many enhancements any organic receives, they can never become a droid."

"Whatever." Zoe Kennedy gave up. It was clear to her that the Separatists were so blind they couldn't see their own bigotry. She also realized that she really didn't give a shit what they thought.


	8. Combat Drop

**Chapter 8: Combat Drop**

The _Sulaco_ had dropped out of hyperspace and was met with the sight of the 8th Fleet as they all hovered over Oddworld.

The marines were finished loading everything up on the dropship.

"You going to be joining us? Gonna miss me that much?" Private Zoe Kennedy asked Commander Zako.

The Separatist officer had gotten out of his regular uniform and into his FR-8 shock trooper combat armor. It was bulky black armor that was equipped with its own personal shield generator and modular weapons mounts in the gauntlets. It was designed and manufactured in the Zalost system, where Zako was from. They manufactured and had a great deal of pride in the battle droids they produced and thus the FR-8 combat suit was inspired after the battle droids. They made the wearer look like a bulky black B1 battle droid. Most unique was the helmet, which emulated the 'snout' of the B1 battle droids (though was considerably shorter). The eyes on the standard helmets glowed blue when powered up, though Zako's glowed a custom purple.

"If the Colonial Marines aren't up to the task, I might."

"Then you're wasting your time. We're not going to leave anything alive."

"You guys are leaving your ship with no crew?" Zako asked Kennedy.

"I doubt you Seppers will try and steal it."

"We would have no need of such a ship," SSA-719 said.

"See? There you go." Private Kennedy got her rifle ready and joined the rest of the squad at the ready line. The marines loaded up on the APC, which then drove up to the dropship. The three Confederates watched for a moment before entering their own shuttle.

The hangar bay doors opened and the dropship and shuttle started to make their way down to the planet.

* * *

Krunch downed a cold, refreshing soulstorm brew. When he finished he smashed the glass against the metal floor. The small, random act of violence helped slightly alleviate his sour mood. Strange things were happening in and around Rupture Farms. It had gotten so bad that all personnel had been ordered to evacuate. Krunch wanted to stay and investigate exactly what was going on, he was the first to find the spider-scorpion creatures after all. Why should he be kept out of the loop? Commander Kremlo had reassigned Krunch and Zal to patrol the main hub of Feeco Depot. Zal clearly didn't give a shit that they were reassigned.

The two sligs were basically doing the same thing they were before, only now they were clearly removed from the action and excitement. That had been reserved for the droid army that showed up to handle the situation.

Things were serious enough that Krunch knew pulling any more pranks would not be tolerated and Zal was happy to know that his friend wouldn't be up to any more funny business for the time being.

It wasn't all bad. They had been assigned two slogs to work with. Slogs were eyeless creatures with huge gaping mouths that walked on two legs. Earth humans had been known to superficially compare them to the dogs of their world. Zal and Krunch both liked slogs, most sligs did. They were loyal companions that were useful in keeping the mudokons in line, but they were not good with children.

Everything appeared to be safe and boring as they continued on their assigned route. Life had a way of being unpredictable though.

"Hey…" Krunch was dumbfounded by what he saw. A pair of quarians was trying to stuff a geth in-between some pipes that ran along the bottom of the wall. Krunch knew enough about the outside galaxy to know a geth when he saw one. It was one the few off-world things (besides clone troopers) that sligs were trained to recognize and attack on sight.

"Hey!" Krunch said louder this time, finding authority in his voice. "You there! Stop!"

"What the hell is going on?" Zal asked.

"They're tryin' to hide geth!"

"Wha?"

The two quarians stopped what they were doing and looked at the two sligs, then at their geth. They turned and ran. Krunch fired off a few rounds into the geth and it toppled over onto the floor. The slig with the violet visor mask was satisfied that the geth was incapacitated. Now they needed to stop those quarians.

"Get 'em!" Krunch took off with Zal following his example. The slogs barked and chased after the suited aliens, their gaping maws wanting to rip through the suits and taste quarian flesh.

* * *

General OOM-9 had finally taken a shuttle down to Oddworld. The battle droid was met by none other than General Dripik and Vice-President Aslik. Yayap and Zakap had also been assigned to greet OOM-9. The two special ops grunts took up positions behind OOM-9 after he departed from his shuttle. They gave off the appearance that they were the general's elite bodyguards.

The two glukkons engaged in small talk with the battle droid. The two unggoy guards also noticed OOM-9 being showered with the occasional praise. It wasn't entirely unexpected; the battle droid leader was very popular in the CIS. If OOM-9 were to ever stage a coup against Grievous, most Separatists would gladly go along with him.

Commander Zako approached OOM-9 and the glukkons before they finished their pleasantries. He was silent under his betters addressed him.

"Commander Zako, what have you to report?" General OOM-9 asked.

"General, I have Ripley standing by with the Colonial Marines."

"Excellent work, Commander. I knew I could count on you."

Before anyone could say another word, the echo of gunfire sifted through the air.

"What the?" General Dripik muttered.

The source of the commotion soon came into their view.

A pair of female quarians was running by, two barking slogs were hot on their heels. A pair of sligs was trailing behind, one of them wearing a violet custom colored visor mask.

"Stop 'em!" the slig with the violet visor yelled, "they're tryin' to deploy geth!"

"What?" Aslik hissed. General Dripik just stood there with a stunned stare.

"After them," OOM-9 ordered, "I want them captured alive!"

"Yes sir!" Zako, Zakap and Yayap joined the two sligs and their slogs in chasing after the quarians.

"The quarians hate the geth… or did I miss something?" Aslik turned to OOM-9.

"They despise each other. That's why I want them taken alive. Something's not right here."

"Great… just great. As if things weren't bad enough," Dripik complained.

"General Dripik, you better put your troops on full alert," OOM-9 advised.

"What about you? If you can't handle the situation then we're all screwed," Aslik hissed at the command droid.

"No need to worry, Mr. Vice-President. I'll take care of it."

* * *

Tali fought the urge to turn around and blast her pursuers with her shotgun. That would be going too far. Everything had just been a huge misunderstanding. She and Lena were merely hiding away geth parts for another quarian to come pick up and take to the fleet. But that stupid slig thought that they were trying to plant geth on the planet for an invasion or something. It was completely ridiculous. No quarian would ever help the geth… ever.

"Now what?" Lena asked.

"This." Tali released her combat drone as a distraction. "Call Penn and tell him he better have the ship ready to go."

"Right."

The combat drone tasered one of the slogs, gaining the attention of both. That still left the quarians being chased by the two sligs, two unggoy, and what looked to be an armored human.

"Any more great ideas?" Lena huffed.

"Keep running."

"I could have thought of that."

"Split up." Tali went left. Lena went right.

The pairs of sligs and unggoy both parted ways. Zakap and Zal went after the quarian that went right while Yayap and Krunch chased after the quarian that went left. Zako ended up going left as well.

Tali wasn't sure of what else she could do short of attacking. She figured if she did that things might turn deadly… though she did hear that droid she ran past tell the soldiers to take her and Lena alive. Tali wasn't sure how disciplined the soldiers were, they might try to kill her if she got really nasty with them as far as she knew.

It was a shame really. Tali and Lena were almost finished. If they just hadn't been caught none of this would have happened. They could have left the planet with the locals being none the wiser. Now it looked like they may have to blast their way out.

Tali saw a train parked at one of the many stations. It looked like no one was there. It seemed odd that the trains wouldn't be running. But Tali had to take whatever opportunity presented itself.

She dashed onboard the train and shut the door behind her. She locked it and went over to the controls to start the train up.

"Damn it!" Krunch said, "door's locked."

"Then blow it open," Zako ordered.

"Can't, it's too strong for anything we're carrying," the slig answered.

"We're not letting that quarian get away."

Zako hoisted Yayap up and the unggoy crawled on top of the train. Yayap then gave Zako a hand and the human climbing on board.

"Hey wait!" The train started moving before Krunch could get on. The slig was left behind.

"Damn it! The slig could have told us where this train is headed," Zako muttered to Yayap. "No matter. As soon as this train stops the quarian will be ours." The officer magnetically locked his boots onto the train to prevent himself from falling off. Yayap had to make due with just holding on.

Little did Tali, Yayap or Zako realize but the train they were riding was currently heading towards Rupture Farms.

* * *

The UD-4L Cheyenne dropship had landed in the Free-Fire Zone. It took the M577 APC all but two minutes to reach the outskirts of the stockyards of Rupture Farms before a squad of battle droids signaled for them to pull over. Before they had been stopped the APC had passed by a small army of battle droids, sligs, and unggoy. Gorman thought it peculiar that his team was here at all; the Magog Cartel didn't need them with all these battle droids around.

Gorman and Burke got out of the armored vehicle. A human female with short blonde hair waited for the two of them to approach. A pair of super battle droids stood at both sides of her and a small squad of unggoy were milling around behind them. The B2 droids towered over their officer, making her look shorter than she actually was.

"Lieutenant Gorman. I am Major Ashley Katen. I will be your liaison with the droid army during this operation." She handed Gorman a datapad. "Everything you need to know is in here. It's mostly just the comm frequencies we'll be using and layout of Rupture Farms you can download to your troops."

"Thank you, Major."

Katen eyed the Colonial Marines officer up and down. She hadn't bothered to read the dossier on him but he certainly looked capable enough. Katen didn't think much of Earth humans in general but Gorman seemed all right.

"Right. So we'll be standing by in case things go sour. Just say the word and I'll have my droids in there to help your marines out. I doubt it will come to that though. We wouldn't be sending in just your team if the Colonial Marines couldn't handle it. It's not like anyone is setting this operation up to fail or anything."

Gorman thought that was an odd choice of words but agreed with her. He couldn't imagine how their failure would benefit anyone here. The Colonial Marines officer and Weyland-Yutani representative went back to their APC.

Katen turned her attention to Gagaw. The unggoy had his glowing omni-tool to pull up a local newscast.

"_The Magog on the March. News you can't abuse. General Dripik declares martial law."_

The visual cut away from the slig newscaster and was now focused on Dripik standing in front of a podium full of microphones.

"_No namby pamby mudokon meat puppet is gonna make me look like a fool. We'll have that traitor Abe in no time or my name ain't… ah… uhh… uhh…"_

"_That's Dripik, sir." _A voice off-camera could barely be heard.

"_Dripik! I did, I knew that."_

"_Brought to you by Molluck's Mouth Lube. Say it don't spray it."_

Katen ended up thinking Dripik was either a moron or had a serious case of stage fright. Either one would be a very bad trait for a high-ranking military officer to have.

* * *

When the train finally came to a halt Tali realized she had made a horrible mistake. She didn't know where she was now. Before at least she knew enough of FeeCo Depot to get back to the _Ebon Hawk_ but now it looked like she was in a completely different facility.

She unlocked the door and got out.

"Got you!" Zako jumped down off the top of the train.

Tali's omni-tool came to life and she hit the Separatist with an energy drain blast.

"Owww! You quarian bitch! You'll pay for that!" Zako stumbled around, blue sparks cascading from his black armor. Yayap hopped off the train.

Tali had no idea why her attack was so effective. Her energy drain attack was meant to sap shields and damage synthetics. It _could_ kill a heavily wounded organic, but most of the time it just caused minor temporary pain. But it seemed to have a huge effect here. With his armor on, the quarian couldn't tell Zako was a cyborg. The blast was wrecking havoc with his cybernetic implant.

Tali started running again with Yayap close behind her. After a few seconds Commander Zako regained his composure and started chasing down the quarian as well.

Tali's surroundings flew by her as she ran, but she was still able to make out a lot of meat saws… and blood. She was wondering what fresh hell she had gotten herself into. In retrospect, it might have been better to just surrender to the sligs in the first place and explain what they were doing. Seemed little chance that talking things out would work now.

Commander Zako tried to keep up with the other two, but they were becoming smaller and smaller as they gained ground. It was ridiculous that an unggoy and a quarian could outrun him, but he still wasn't concentrating after being hit by the quarian's omni-tool attack.

Eventually the Separatist officer lost sight of them entirely. He came at a crossroads. There were two different halls up ahead, but there was the option to drop down onto a nearby assembly line. Zako had lost them. He looked around. Not only had the commander lost the quarian but he had gotten himself lost in Rupture Farms.

"Damn it!"


	9. Futile Escape

**Chapter 9: Futile Escape**

The quarians trying to help the geth invade Oddworld was something completely unforeseen. Zal returned from the chase empty-handed but pointed the battle droids in the right direction and the CIS went in and secured the geth remains. But the quarians were still on the loose. Zakap was still missing, presumably still chasing down his quarian prey.

OOM-9 tried wirelessly contacting Commander Zako to get an update on the pursuit but only got back static. Even with this new development, the CIS could not ignore the infestation that plagued Rupture Farms. OOM-9 was ready to let the Colonial Marines have a crack at the xenomorph problem.

"Why are we wasting our time?" Major Katen asked. "The Colonial Marines are a joke. I don't get it."

"We have nothing to lose and everything to gain," OOM-9 explained. "If Lieutenant Gorman's soldiers succeed, then the problem is solved. If they fail, then my army will take care of the situation. Either way, we lose nothing."

"I still don't understand."

"If Weyland-Yutani gets what it wants from this little adventure, then their ties to the Confederacy will strengthen. The Colonial Marines are little more than Weyland-Yutani's private army. We could begin to grow ties with the Systems Alliance. We may even be able to gain greater support within the Citadel itself. All we have to do is create a small amount of understanding between the CIS and the Citadel. That will create an enormous amount of friction between the Republic and the Citadel. Once that happens either the Jedi or the Spectres will do something rash to break the peace. Both the Jedi and the Spectres are given too much power and authority; it will be easy to manipulate a situation that causes an incident. They may even cause a problem without our encouragement. The Citadel might not openly ally with the Confederacy, but they will go to war with the Republic, and that will give us an edge to end this war more easily."

"You have this whole thing planned out already? That's why you're the General."

The whole joint-operation scenario suddenly made a whole lot more sense, at least from the CIS perspective. Katen was impressed at OOM-9's ability to plan so far ahead. "I mostly just kill people."

"And you are very good at it, Major."

"Thanks, I try my best."

OOM-9 opened up a link to the Colonial Marine's APC. "Lieutenant Gorman.

You may begin the operation at your discretion."

"_Understood, General. Operation will commence in five minutes."_

* * *

"Where did that fucking quarian go? Where the hell am I?" Commander Zako wandered around lost in the labyrinth that was Rupture Farms. For some reason he still couldn't get a clear connection to the network. _Probably still suffering damage from that energy blast,_ Zako thought. The commander figured as much, nothing seemed to be going right this day.

Rupture Farms had gone quiet. The meat on the assembly lines was starting to stink. Zako's helmet filtered out most of the foul odors but it was still pretty rank. Karl Zako loved the delicious food products that came from Rupture Farms, seeing and smelling them rotting on the assembly lines was such a waste.

The commander stopped short when he saw a mudokon hanging upside down from a rope. He had been skinned like an animal. "Gah! Fuck!"

Now he knew the horrid stink wasn't entirely from the meat abandoned on the assembly lines. He inspected the corpse further. There was a horrible expression of pain and terror on the dead mudokon's face. Ripley's report didn't make any mention of the xenomorphs skinning their prey, or tying them up with rope afterwards. From what Zako understood, the xenomorphs were closer to animals than they were to sentient beings. _What the fuck did this?_

Zako's musings were answered by a clicking noise. A noise he had never heard before. The CIS cyborg looked around for what made the noise, finding nothing but bloodstained walls.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

Suddenly a large bipedal alien appeared from out of nowhere. The large alien was almost upon Zako from the start. His mind racing on how such a large creature had been able to sneak up on him so easily. It had to have been cloaking technology. There was simply no other explanation.

The clicking noise echoed throughout Rupture Farms, emanating from behind the thing's helmet. In one fluid motion the large biped seized Zako by the neck and lifted him up into the air. The alien's husky scent was able to piece through the stench of decaying meat; it smelled like rotting bananas.

"Fuck you…" the Separatist managed to sputter. Zako no longer had the strength or concentration as the creature choked the life out of him.

Just as it seemed all hope was lost, the creature suddenly dropped him. It clutched at its chest, luminescent green blood dripping down from it. A large stinger punctured through the biped's chest. The stinger was attacked to a long, black tail.

The tail swiveled the dying alien around to face its killer: an adult xenomorph. Commander Zako recognized it from the description in Ripley's report. The alien had an elongated skull with no eyes. Its carapace was a ghastly black. It walked upright on two feet. It looked like a cross between a bug and a serpent and a child's nightmare. In the most superficial way possible the xenomorph's elongated head reminded Zako of the B1 battle droids.

The monstrous creature opening its jaws and a second smaller set of jaws shot forth and punctured the other alien in the head. The xenomorph tossed the corpse aside as if it weighed nothing.

The xenomorph hissed and moved, but not towards Zako. The xenomorph had started crawling up the wall, intent on attacking a new target. Zako watched the monster's movements and saw what it was after; another of the bipedal masked aliens had appeared.

The formerly cloaked alien fired a weapon from its shoulder. Zako thought it seemed similar to a blaster rifle, but much more powerful from the sound of it and the damage it did to the wall when it missed the incoming xenomorph.

The weapon-wielding alien fired a net from one of its wrist gauntlets. The net caught the xenomorph and it tumbled down to the ground. The alien, the hunter, predator, whatever it was, leapt down from its perch on the piping above and landing on both feet with a thud.

Tired of being a spectator in a battle where his life was on the line, Zako drew up his E-5 blaster rifle and hit the hunter alien several times. The blaster shots clearly had an effect on the creature but it didn't go down. That was not good; blasters were able to take down most opponents in a hit or two, and it was clear the creature wasn't even protected by shields.

The predator alien fired on Zako with its shoulder-mounted weapon but missed. Zako moved out of the way in time but figured he should have been hit. Maybe the alien wasn't very skilled or experienced with its gear.

The xenomorph caught in the net had been forgotten. The netting started to constrict against the screaming alien, cutting into its armored head. Acidic green blood started to ooze out of deepening wounds made by the net. Eventually the acid ate through the net and the xenomorph broke free.

With renewed rage and a desire for revenge, the scarred xenomorph charged the predator alien and knocked it forward. The masked warrior fought with the grace of a martial artist while the xenomorph moved with the purpose of a natural born killer.

Zako ran for his life. Whoever won, he didn't want to fight the victor. He soon heard the ear-shattering roar of the xenomorph echo through the halls. He was sure the xenomorph was the winner. But Zako was already long gone to see for himself.

* * *

Yayap was exhausted; he had been chasing the quarian for far too long. It felt like he had chased her from one end of Rupture Farms to the other and back again. His stubby little legs were in danger of giving out on him. Yayap would lose the quarian if he didn't do something now.

_Fuck it. One little needle isn't going to kill her._ Yayap fired a single round from his needler. The pink projectile homed in on the target, sticking her square in the back. The needle shattered a second after being lodged in the quarian's suit but her personal shields protected her from any serious harm.

The single needle did cause the quarian to stumble, and with his last ounce of energy Yayap dived forward and tackled her to the ground. The quarian rolled and ended up on her back.

The quarian struggled but Yayap had his full weight down on her chest. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Will you give it a rest already?"

"Get off me!"

"Only when you give up."

The quarian tried to reach for her pistol, but Yayap grabbed her by the wrist and held her arm down. He was much stronger than her. Even if he was exhausted, Yayap was sure the quarian couldn't get free unless he allowed it.

"You bosh'tet!"

The quarian squirmed around some more before finally giving up.

"You done?"

"Yes. I wasn't helping the geth."

"That's not what the sligs said."

"They saw wrong."

"Don't care. The big boss told us to take you in."

There was a hissing noise. Yayap looked up and saw a giant bug-serpent creature staring at him. Maybe it was staring and maybe it wasn't, the unggoy couldn't tell, as the monster had no eyes. It was a horrible amalgamation of teeth and claws.

"Damn… it." Yayap snapped up his needler and held down the trigger. The haze of pink needles streaked for their target, but the creature moved out of the way and up the wall, eventually making its way to the ceiling.

Yayap got up off the quarian, backing up and trying to aim at the beast. The thing kept dodging his needles. The special ops grunt considered switching on his active camouflage but Yayap figured it likely wouldn't make a difference since the creature had no eyes and got around (and dodged incoming homing projectiles) just fine. Turning himself invisible wouldn't hide him so he just kept it off.

The xenomorph was making its way back down the wall and towards Yayap when it was hit by a shotgun blast. Tali was up and her feet and had her shotgun drawn on the ravenous beat. She fired again, this time missing.

Between the quarian and the unggoy firing at it, the lone xenomorph turned tail and ran. Yayap had no idea just how smart the creature was, but it was smart enough to know to value its own life… or perhaps it was needed elsewhere? Yayap really had no idea and needed to focus his thoughts back on the quarian he was supposed to capture.

"What was that?"

"Our death…" Yayap softly answered, his voice barely audible beyond his mask. The unggoy was disturbed that he hadn't got a whiff of the alien's scent. It either didn't have a scent at all or it was so weak that the stench of the slaughterhouse drowned it out. Either way it would make dealing with the thing more difficult if Yayap couldn't smell it coming.

The two turned to face each other, their weapons drawn and ready to fire.

"I don't want to do this," Tali said.

"Then don't."

"I wasn't helping the geth."

"You said that already."

A few tense seconds passed by. If someone was going to shoot they would have started by now.

"I don't want to be around when that thing comes back with some friends." Yayap lowered his needler. "And I don't know where we are."

"I'd rather we not die here. From shooting each other or from those things." Tali lowered her shotgun.

"Same here. Truce? At least till we get the fuck outta here?"

"Truce. I'm Tali'Zorah vas Neema, by the way."

Yayap felt his brain hurt just hearing her name. "I'm Yayap. Let's go try and find a map."

It was a quick and awkward alliance but both Tali and Yayap had enough common sense to know when to stop fighting over petty problems when there were vicious aliens lurking about ready to eat them at a moment's notice.

"So… Tali'Zorah vas Wha…err… umm… what was it again?"

"You can just call me Tali."

"Right, Tali. So, care to explain exactly what you were doing that made the sligs think you were helping geth infiltrate the planet?"

The pair had no idea where they were going. They were just going in the opposite direction of where the vicious alien scampered off to.

Tali let out a sigh. "We were dropping off geth parts."

"Yeah… so you might want to explain that a little further."

This was a classified mission, but Tali thought honesty was the best policy at this point. Maybe she could even convince them to let her and the others go peacefully "We ambushed some geth. We took bits and pieces that weren't completely destroyed and we were setting them off at a drop point for another quarian to pick up and return the parts to the fleet for study. The sligs must have thought we were trying to hide a functioning geth."

"Why the secrecy?"

"Because geth are involved. We let anyone know what we're doing and things could get bad. There are people out there that would love to get their hands on geth technology."

"Like your people?"

"We're trying to find better ways to fight them. So we can one day reclaim our homeworld."

"Right." Yayap could respect that; he didn't know what his superiors would think of it though.

They dropped down onto an assembly line to get a better view of their surroundings, maybe find some sign pointing towards an exit. The line was shut down so they had no fear of chopped up by the buzz saws. There were still ribcages and meat rotting. Tali noticed the whole of Rupture Farms ran on old tech, which made sense. Oddworld was considered a backwater little world which is why she thought they'd be able to easily get away with a geth parts drop-off. She had been wrong of course, even in the middle of nowhere security guards could recognize geth on sight.

* * *

The marines piled out of the APC when the vehicle reached the edge of Rupture Farms. Overall the situation didn't seem so bad. The droid army was in sight if anything were to go wrong.

"Go, go, go!"

The marines entered the labyrinth of rusty pipes and meat saws. Most of the machinery was shut down but a few things were still going. It was clear the last of the workers were in a real hurry to get the hell out.

"Watch where you step. Some of this machinery is still dangerous, even when shut off. Last thing we need is someone falling into a meat grinder."

"No shit, Sarge."

"Watch your fire and check your targets. They may still be some missing workers in here."

There was no trace of any mudokon workers or slig security guards still in the facility, unless one was to count the splatters of blood all over the place. They were in a giant slaughterhouse after all and the marines wouldn't be able to differentiate between the regular blood spatters of the factory's day-to-day operation and blood spatters from an alien attack.

As the marines went further in they soon starting seeing some sort of black substance was covering the walls. It was obviously not supposed to be here. It looked like a health hazard, like some sort of black mold infestation only much worse.

"Looks like some sort of secreted resin."

"Yeah, but secreted from what?"

"Nobody touch nothing," Apone said. The lighting was getting worse the further they went into the area infested with the black webbing. It seemed as if the goo had been purposefully placed over light sources. The environment of industry and metal gave way to what looked like walls of dried, black puke.

"Hot as hell in here."

"Yeah man, but it's a dry heat."

"Knock it off, Hudson."

"_Any movement?"_ Gorman asked. The lieutenant was back in the APC with Burke and Ripley, watching the mission from video monitors linked up with the marines' video cameras.

"Nothing. Zip."

"Holy shit."

Several mudokon workers were fixed to the walls by the black resin. Some were high up while others were at ground level. All were dead. Their eyes were open, their faces twisted in varying states of pain and horror.

"Fuck…"

"Steady people. Let's finish our sweep. We're still marines and we got a job to do."

"Help!"

"What?"

"Get over here! We got a live one!"

"Please… k-kill me…" the mudokon plastered to the wall managed to speak.

"Hold on we're going to get you out of here."

"Convulsion!"

Red blood gushed forth as a little baby xenomorph burst forth through the mudokon's chest.

"Kill it!"

The chestburster gave a shriek. The first thing it saw when it was born was prey, but it wasn't ready to hunt and kill yet. Being mere seconds old, it needed its hivemates for protection.

"Dietrich, get back!"

"Flamethrower! Move!" A stream of red-hot fire enveloped the chestburster and its now-dead mudokon host. Hissing could be heard in all directions as the baby alien screamed and died.

"Movement!" Hudson, the marine with the motion tracker called out.

"What's the position?" Apone asked.

"I can't lock in."

"Talk to me, Hudson!"

"Uh… multiple signals… they're closing."

"Go to infrared, people. Look sharp!"

* * *

Watching the marines' video feeds from the APC was not helping any. If the marines couldn't see anything then Gorman, Ripley and Burke sure as hell weren't catching anything on the lousy video feed.

"What's happening, Apone? I can't see anything in here."

"Pull your team out, Gorman," Ripley said.

"_I got signals. I got reading from in front and behind."_

"_Where, man? I don't see shit!"_

"_He's right. There's nothing back here."_

"_Look, I'm telling you. There something moving and it ain't us!"_

"_Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all."_

Ripley, Gorman and Burke heard one of the marines scream and a flamethrower go off but they still couldn't see a damn thing on the monitors. Suddenly three marines flat-lined out of nowhere.

"_Frost!"_

"_Come on!"_

"Jesus Christ, Apone! What the hell is going on?" Gorman demanded.

"_Let's rock!" _Even with the shitty video feed the trio in the APC could tell that the marines were firing wildly now. The xenomorphs had started to attack.

"_Gorman, what's the status?" _Major Katen demanded over the comm channel.

"_They're coming out of the walls! They're coming out of the goddam walls!"_

Gorman knew it was time to pull back and let the battle droids handle the situation. The Colonial Marines were out of their league.

"_Gorman!"_ Katen's voice rang out in the lieutenant's headset again.

"Apone. Fall back by squads to the APC." With everyone talking at once, Gorman couldn't get anything through to anyone.

"_Say again?"_

Gorman struggled to repeat his orders again. The sergeant's video feed suddenly cut out.

"Apone. Talk to me. Apone… talk to me." Gorman froze up.

"He's gone!" Ripley yelled.

"_Gorman, what the fuck is going on over there?"_ Major Katen demanded over the comm.

"_Where's Apone?"_

"_Sarge is gone! Let's get the fuck out of here!"_

"I told them to fall back. I told them to fall back."

Major Katen was sick of Gorman not answering her. "8EX, 5TE, with me." Katen and the two super battle droids were walking towards the parked APC. She was going to have the two droids bash the door in if she had to. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

"They're cut off. Do something! Fuck!" Ripley went over to the driver's seat and started up the APC.

"Ripley, what the hell are you doing? Turn around! That's an order!"

The APC took off before Katen could open its door. It was crystal clear to the CIS officer what was going on now.

"The Colonial Marines just royally fucked up," Katen said into her radio, "Onyx Team, Blue Team, Green Team, move in now! Go, go, go!"

"_Belay those orders,"_ OOM-9 cut in over the comm.

"What? General, we have to move in now!"

"_Negative, Major."_

"What? Why?"

"_Look up."_

"Oh… shit." Major Katen saw why OOM-9 had cancelled the order to the droid teams to in on the xenomorph hive. They would be needed to fight the Grand Army of the Republic instead. Acclamator assault ships and Venator star destroyers were descending from the sky, LAAT gunships and other transports being released from their hangar bays.

* * *

"What the fuck is that?" Yayap asked.

"I don't even want to know…"

"Nothing's ever easy."

Tali and Yayap's aimless wandering around Rupture Farms had inadvertently led them straight into the heart of the xenomorph hive. The unggoy's previous fears that the aliens lacked a specific scent had been confirmed. They were right in the middle of the hive now and still Yayap couldn't pick up any distinct scent, it was really hot though.

Yayap was sure they were in the middle of the hive as there was a massive alien several times larger than the one they fought earlier. A huge, black crest adorned its head. It seemed to be attached to what looked like a giant egg sack. A fair assumption since there were large, leathery eggs all over the place.

The enormous alien queen looked up at the pair of intruders and hissed. A pair of alien guards appeared to have come right out of the black walls. They were smaller than the queen but still much larger than Yayap or Tali.

"Do something!"

Yayap switched on his active camouflage and disappeared.

"Not that!" Tali would have to do something herself. She powered up her combat drone and sent it at the aliens. She was sure it wouldn't be able to do a damn thing against any of them, but she needed a distraction.

Tali took off running. She heard the xenomorphs shatter the combat drone behind her. Yayap dropped his camouflage, revealing himself to be slightly ahead of her.

"Thanks a lot."

"What the hell do you want me to do against that thing?"

"Shooting that needle gun of yours would have been nice!"

"I don't think it would take out that big-ass bug! It would just piss it off!"

A massive roar echoed behind them. Followed by giant footsteps.

"Sounds like it's pissed anyway!"

* * *

Just like Tali and Yayap, Commander Zako also blindly stumbled into the xenomorph hive. He heard gunshots in the distance and realized the Colonial Marines had begun their attack on the infestation. He also realized he had stumbled into the hive.

_Damn it! Why does this happen to me!_ Zako mentally groaned. At the moment he was trying to make as little noise as possible. He wanted to turn around and run for it but his pride as an officer forbid it.

His pride died quickly and he _would_ have turned around and left the hive had he not heard human voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying but it sounded like they needed help.

_This is such a fucking bad idea._ Zako pulled his blaster rifle and headed towards the human voices.

There were a few leathery eggs nearby. A little past the eggs, Zako came across two of the human marines being cocooned by one of the xenomorphs. The CIS officer noticed the top of the xenomorph's head was ridged, unlike the previous one he had seen which was smooth at the top (at least before it got scarred by the masked alien's net). He also noticed the humans were Sergeant Apone and Private Kennedy.

Zako aimed his E-5 blaster and fired at the xenomorph. The shots hit but the alien didn't die. He must have legitimately surprised the creature as it chose to run and preserve its life rather than try and fight back.

"Nice timing," Apone said.

"Get us the fuck out of here!" Zoe struggled with the webbing that kept her plastered to the wall.

"The Maker be damned! These bugs work fast! They already have you half-cocooned on the wall as bug chow." Zako could still hear the battle between the marines and xenomorphs going on in the distance.

"Will you shut up and cut us the fuck down?" Zoe said.

"Bossy bitch. Could show a little gratitude to the guy who just saved your ass." Zako put his blaster away and pulled out his ZK-II war-axe. The ZK-II war-axe was a jet-black single-handed axe with a violet-tipped lightsaber edge that could be turned on and off. They were made specifically to combat the lightsabers used by Jedi, but in this case it worked wonders in cutting away the webbing from Apone and Kennedy.

"Maybe when we're actually out of here!"

As soon as Apone and Kennedy were both free, Tali and Yayap ran by.

"Quarian!" Zako yelled. "Thought you could get away?"

"Not now!" Tali yelled back.

They heard a loud roar.

"The fuck was that?" Zoe asked.

"Big bug!" Yayap answered. "Run!"

"Let's go, Sugarfoot!"

The CIS officer and two marines followed the example of the unggoy and quarian and started running.

They were running from a noise. Zako and the two marines hadn't seen what Tali and Yayap had but ran anyway. To be fair it was a rather scary noise and made sense to run from it.

The main problem was they ran right into the battle between what was left of the marines as they tried to survive against the bulk of the xenomorph hive. The xenomorphs were fast, but even more importantly they were hard to see. Their bodies blended in perfectly with their hive. So often the marines never saw the aliens until they were right upon them and it was too late.

"Hold your fire! Goddamn it!" Apone hollered. Hudson had nearly shot them when they came into view.

"Sarge! Kennedy!"

"Long story, let's go!"

"We're cut off!"

The APC suddenly smashed through the wall.

"Marines! We are leaving!" Apone yelled.

"We gotta go around!" Some of the pipes from the wall had caved in and made a block they had to detour around.

The vehicle's side door opened. Tali was the first one in, followed by Kennedy, then Yayap, Zako, and Apone. Hudson and a few of the other marines managed to make it.

"Go! Go!"

Ripley slammed the APC into reverse and backed out. She turned the troop carrier around and hit the accelerator. The whole xenomorph swarm followed after them. The aliens seemed to be abandoning their hive for a complete counterattack.


	10. Battle of Oddworld

**Chapter 10: Battle of Oddworld**

The occupants of the marines' armored personnel carrier had traded one form of hell for another. Only a fraction of the original team survived the botched assault on the xenomorph hive only to be met with the sight of the Separatist Droid Army fighting the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Galactic Republic had staged a sneak attack on Oddworld. The surprise attack would have worked out better but the CIS was in a very good position to defend the planet from invasion. General OOM-9's troops were positioned all over the place to prevent the infestation in Rupture Farms from spreading anywhere else. But instead of fighting xenomorphs, the Confederate battle droids, humans, mgalekgolo, sligs, and unggoy fought clone troopers instead (and they were very practiced at fighting clone troopers).

Fighters and bombers and transports of all kinds filled the sky. Black plumes of smoke rose of from vehicles that had already been destroyed. Separatist infantry fought clone troopers.

The xenomorphs had abandoned their hive to chase after the APC but ultimately were lost in the chaos of the battle. When the clones started to come under attack from the xenomorphs, they had no idea what they were. In fact, the clones thought that they had merely come under attack from some of the planet's native wildlife.

Somehow, the remaining paramites and scrabs in the pens of Rupture Farms' stockyards had gotten loose and were attacking anything in their way as they fled back into the comfort of nature.

The whole thing had devolved into a messy four-way battle between the CIS, Republic, xenomorphs and what was left of Rupture Farms' animal stock.

And that was the sight that Abe returned to after completing his journey. Abe had gained massive power thanks to Big Face and had gone to shut down Rupture Farms and free his fellow mudokons. But from what the blue mudokon saw, it looked like Rupture Farms had been shut down for him. Clones and droids and aliens were scattered all over the place, and Abe had a sudden urge to turn around and just leave. He wasn't exactly sure what he could do about this… sneaking around and taking out a few slig security guards in Rupture Farms was one thing, but he wasn't so sure about challenging entire fucking armies.

* * *

Grid had heard the queen's call to action in defense of the hive. But he was a bit preoccupied at the moment the call came. He had killed two of the predator aliens and was hunting down the third.

By the time Grid silenced the third and final hunter, the queen had given out new orders to her hive. All xenomorphs were compelled to abandon their hive and attack. Their current hive under serious threat, the xenomorphs were moving out to find a new home.

Xenomorph queens were very intelligent. They were much smarter than the other xenomorph variants that served them. Xenomorphs in general excelled at observational learning. Before the battle, the xenomorphs that had been slinking around Rupture Farms had observed CIS troops using transports and shuttles, the queen understood what the new ships in the sky represented: a way to spread and grow the species.

The xenomorphs were to fight their way onto the new ships and Grid intended to do just that. His only problem was that he was far removed from the rest of his hivemates. But he would still carry out the queen's will without hesitation or question.

Grid did manage to pick up one companion: a single facehugger that was wondering around the interior of Rupture Farms on its own. While not a smart as adult xenomorphs, the facehuggers still understood their orders from the queen. The facehugger latched onto Grid's left arm, catching a free ride. Together the pair slinked off to find the nearest ship. Unlike the other xenomorphs Grid was not going to engage the enemy directly, he didn't have enough hivemates for that. He would have to use stealth.

* * *

A LAAT/i gunship hovered in slow and low near Rupture Farms before moving further away towards a larger assembly of droid forces on the outskirts. The Jedi Aayla Secura and her second-in-command Commander Bly were aboard the gunship, observing the situation from the air. They were both shocked at how fast the Separatists were able to respond to their invasion force.

"This attack was planned under a shroud of secrecy. I wonder how the droid army learned of our impending invasion?"

"I don't know, General. Perhaps a spy tipped them off?" Commander Bly offered.

"We only gave information to Jedi and high-ranking clone officers precisely to prevent that problem."

"I don't know what else it could be, sir."

Aayla Secura rolled her eyes. The clones addressed everyone as 'sir' regardless of their sex.

It was supposed to be a quick and decisive battle. Oddworld was not supposed to be this heavily defended. Another troubling aspect was the Force had given Secura no insight into the future. If she had foreseen something the Republic could have changed their strategy or cancelled the attack altogether.

But it was too late for retreat now. Not without getting what they came for.

"Pilot!" Secura called out, "keep us away from that cluster of tanks!"

The Jedi's warning to the gunship's pilot came too late. The aircraft came in too close and an AAT hit it with its primary laser cannon.

"I can't hold her! We're going down!"

Aayla Secura and Bly jumped from the dying gunship, the Jedi using the Force to gently glide them down to the ground.

"General Secura, how nice of you to _drop_ by," the command battle droid at the top of the AAT said.

"General OOM-9. I should have known you would counter our surprise attack. You move your armies as if you were guided by the Force."

"I'm not Force-sensitive. I'm just smarter than you." In this particular instance OOM-9's success was due to pure luck, but Secura didn't need to know that. From what OOM-9 knew of the Jedi, they didn't even believe in luck.

Aayla Secura had no idea how the battle droid was so successful but she was sure it was more than just his ability to think.

The armored assault tank fired all weapons, but Secura was able to dodge them all though channeling the Force through her.

OOM-9 aimed his E-5 and shot Bly in the head before the clone commander could cause him any trouble. The battle droid was in no mood to put up with any antics from highly experienced clone commanders.

An IFT-X fighter tank came to the Jedi's defense, distracting the AAT. From the top of the tank, OOM-9 still chose to fire at the Jedi but his one blaster rifle wasn't going to do the trick. Not unless Aayla really messed up with blocking the blasts with her lightsaber.

General OOM-9 wasn't the only one who had friends. The Jedi suddenly had to dodge oversized needles… needles that came from a special ops hunter's needler cannon. Deadside seemed to have materialized out of nowhere. The mgalekgolo had to drop his active camouflage in order to fire his weapon, but he was sure he had the shot. The Jedi proved him wrong and charged past the needles, bring up her lightsaber to cut the hunter down.

Deadside rose up the metal shield attached to his arm and blocked the Jedi's weapon. The hunter's quick movement knocked the Jedi away. Secura was stunned for a moment; her lightsaber should have cut through with no problem. Then she remembered hearing some reports that the Separatists had started adding a layer of phirk to hunter shields specifically to help them defend against lightsaber attacks.

Aayla Secura had to move again, now she had to dodge OOM-9 and Deadside's attacks. But it wasn't the battle droid or the hunter that hit her.

The Jedi was so focused on the enemies she was already fighting that she didn't even sense or see the third one. Even if she had, there was nowhere else to go between the needler cannon and the droid's E-5 blaster rifle.

A pink beam of energy punctured Aayla in the gut from behind. The Jedi dropped her lightsaber and it shut off. As a reflex she tried to grab at the blade that had gone through her, only to slice up her hands. The ultra grunt Curlap was behind her, he had snuck up with his active camouflage. The twi'lek twitched for a second more before Curlap deactivated his energy cutlass and let the Jedi fall the ground.

* * *

"Pull this damn thing over!" Zako demanded of Ripley. "I have to get out there and fight!"

"This isn't my war," Ripley said.

"I'm not asking you to fight."

Ripley pulled the APC over. It wasn't like she had anywhere specific to go so long as it was away from the xenomorphs and the battle. If the commander wanted to get off and get himself killed that was fine with her.

"Yayap, I want you to watch over the quaria-" Tali shoved Yayap into Zako and took off out the door.

"Damn it! Stop her!"

None of the Colonial Marines were inclined to help. They were exhausted from fighting the xenomorphs and had no intention in getting roped into any conflict the CIS had with the quarian or the clone army. Only Yayap made a move to follow Zako out of the APC and chase Tali.

Yayap would have stopped Zako and told him what Tali was doing and that she wasn't a threat, but considering the current situation he wasn't in a position to do so. All Yayap could do was follow his orders, like a soldier should.

Yayap had no idea where Tali was running to. She probably didn't even know, as long as it was away from the Separatists chasing her. A few times Yayap and Zako had to stop and shoot some clone troopers before moving on, allowing Tali to gain a slight lead.

Zako wished some of the battle droids would help him out. They were all over the place, but they were all busy fighting the clone army. If even just one battle droid would turn and grab the quarian as she ran by, then the chase would be over.

Unexpectedly someone did try to grab the quarian, but it wasn't a droid. It was the slig with the custom color violet visor that had been chasing Tali earlier.

He missed grabbing her of course and fired off a few rounds of his assault rifle to give her a scare. He still remembered the order to take the quarians alive.

"That's slurg shit! I had her," Krunch said as Yayap and Zako caught up to him.

An orange freighter flew overhead and swung around, eventually touching down near the edge of Rupture Farms. Another quarian got out; carrying a grenade launcher and firing it in any direction she pleased.

"Lena! Careful!" Tali yelled.

Krunch, Zako and Yayap were held up by a trio of clone troopers. Tali would have had her chance to escape if not for the fact that she had to help Lena fight off a pair of clones that took offense to her grenades flying everywhere.

All the while no one was paying attention to the _Ebon Hawk_. Almost no one. Waiting at the edge of Rupture Farms, Grid saw his chance to board a ship. The xenomorph took off in a blur, making a mad dash for the _Ebon Hawk_'s open and unguarded loading ramp. The xenomorph (and the facehugger still clinging to his arm) made it inside the old freighter without anyone noticing them.

Zako and his team finished killing their clones before Tali and Lena had killed theirs.

When Tali and Lena started moving again the Separatist trio of nearly upon them. Lena fired a grenade, but the shot was wide. The ripples of the blast were enough to startle Krunch and Yayap but Zako kept running at full speed.

"You're not going anywhere, quarian!"

Tali hit the armored cyborg with another energy drain blast from her omni-tool. He staggered forward, his gun still pointed in her general direction. Zako was nearly on top of Tali now. He fired a trio of shots, one of them hitting against Tali's personal shield. When he tried to aim his blaster specifically at her face she knocked the gun away, pulled the combat knife strapped to her leg, spun the officer around and used him as a meat shield. She held the knife up to his neck.

When Zako felt the knife he dropped his E-5 blaster to the ground.

Krunch fired off a few shots.

"Don't shoot!" Zako yelled as the bullets impacted on his armor's personal shields.

"Try anything and I slit his throat." Tali started to back away, still holding onto her hostage. Lena ran up the _Ebon Hawk_'s loading ramp. Krunch stopped shooting but still slowly followed after Tali and her prisoner. A nearby dwarf spider droid stopped shooting at the clones and turned to focus his attention on the captured CIS officer.

Tali kept her eyes on the slig and the spider droid as she backed away… she noticed that the grunt… Yayap was missing. She had no time to worry about that now.

Tali had just reached the edge of the loading ramp and started to slowly backpedal up it. Just as they came fully into the ship, Zako decided he didn't want to be a prisoner anymore. He grabbed at the quarian's knife hand and the two struggled.

Krunch saw this as his chance and charged in at them, tacking them. Zako and Tali fell back but instead of hitting the floor they hit something else… something invisible.

Yayap had switched on his active camouflage and had snuck aboard the ship before Tali. But Krunch's tackle of Tali and her meatshield had revealed his location. His camouflage fell away, revealing where he was.

The Separatist officer started to laugh through his helmet. "Surrender, we have you outnumbered."

"I don't think so. _You_ surrender or I blow us all into meat chunks." Lena'Xel leveled her grenade launcher at the Separatists. In such close quarters, one shot would kill them all.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

"Fuck…"

"Penn!" Tali yelled towards the cockpit. "Get us out of here!"

The _Ebon Hawk_ lifted off. The dwarf spider droid fired a few shots, hitting the ship but not bringing it down. The spider droid updated the network that Commander Zako had been taken hostage. The entire droid army was quickly updated with the new information and knew not to destroy the ship.

That didn't stop the Republic from taking a few shots at the escaping freighter.

Tali had gone up to the cockpit to check on Penn.

"What the hell are those bucket heads shooting at us for?"

"They're just shooting at everything." Tali sat in the co-pilot's chair.

"We're not going to be able to take much more of this."

"We have hostages," Tali said, "the droids shouldn't shoot us at least. One of their spider walkers saw us take them on the ship."

"Perfect. Then they'll chase us!"

"They would be doing that even without the hostages!"

"Set a course for hyperspace."

"Where?" Tali asked.

"Anywhere but here! Just make it quick! My ship's gonna fall apart at this rate!"

"There's not a lot out here…"

"I don't care! Let's just go!"

* * *

Zaeed Massani didn't mind not having his team sent in to deal with the infestation at Rupture Farms. His small band of mercenaries had gotten paid for their simple investigation in which they really weren't all that helpful. The glukkons had told them they were still scheduled to wipe out a group of rogue mudokon natives. But the mission was put on hold until the issue at Rupture Farms had been resolved. With the arrival of the CIS droid army Zaeed assumed they were no longer needed. But he was still told his mission was going to go through anyway and that his team was still going to be paid.

Hanging around the central hub of FeeCo Depot wasn't so bad. There were extranet feeds they could watch and the food on Oddworld was delicious. But when the clone army of the Republic suddenly invaded the planet changed things.

Zaeed and his team weren't getting paid enough to fight the clone army. The damn clones didn't seem to care who they shot at. Zaeed and his team had boarded the _Millennium Falcon_ and were all set to take off when they received a transmission from the leader of the droid army.

"Make it quick." Zaeed said, "we're getting the hell out of here. We aren't being paid enough to fight the goddam clone army."

"_That's not what I want you to do. A group of quarian fugitives has kidnapped one of my officers and is using him as a hostage in order to escape the planet."_ OOM-9 said.

"And you want us to bring him back?"

"_Yes. You may use any means you deem necessary but I want my officer returned to me alive. I'd prefer you capture the quarians alive as well but you're free to terminate them if that's what it takes."_

"This won't be cheap."

"_I don't have time to deal with this myself. I have an army to fight. Money does not concern me. I'll pay your special rate. Just get it done."_

"Alright, you got yourself a deal, droid."

"_Excellent. We have the shipped tagged and are sending you the projected coordinates."_

"We're on our way. We'll bring you back your officer."

The _Millennium Falcon_ lifted off and followed the path of the _Ebon Hawk_.


	11. Early Arrivals

**Chapter 11: Early Arrivals**

Tali held up the needler weapon to the light, observing the strange beauty of the pink needles jutting out from the top of the weapon. She wanted to open the weapon up and see how it worked, but knew now wasn't the appropriate time for that.

Right now she and Lena had three captives that needed to be watched: a human (or so they assumed as they couldn't be completely sure with his armor on), a slig and an unggoy. They had been deprived of their weapons, but the quarians still needed to be on guard. As far as Tali and Lena could observe, all their hostages were military, so there was no telling what they might try in order to get away.

The three prisoners were engaged with small talk with one another in order to pass the time. From what Tali could glean from the conversation, the human male encased in the black armor knew Yayap the grunt (also in black armor). Tali wondered if they were elite special operations troops, they sure looked the part. Tali felt a pang of guilt for holding Yayap prisoner. The grunt had temporarily teamed up with her when they were lost in Rupture Farms together. He seemed okay… when he wasn't trying to chase or shoot her. Yayap and the armored officer didn't seem to know the slig very well.

The recycled air in the ship had an awful stale quality to it, not that any of the occupants seemed to care. The quarians were stuck in their environmental suits. Yayap was trapped in his mask if he didn't want to suffocate to death. Krunch never took off his own mask and Zako stayed in his armor the whole time. There was not an uncovered face in the whole lot.

Penn used the ship's intercom system to call Tali up to the cockpit, leaving Lena to guard their many prisoners by herself. Though none of the captives were stupid enough to try anything since the quarian was still pointing a grenade launcher at them.

"What is it? Tali asked when she reached Penn.

"We're coming out of hyperspace." The _Ebon Hawk_ lurched out of hyperspace just as Penn was finishing his sentence.

"Look at that!" Tali had pictured their destination as some obscure backwater world. And while she was right, there was more to it than that. A gigantic ship was floating amongst rocky debris. Its profile gave the impression of a corroded whale carcass with its ribcage sticking out. There seemed to be no apparent activity on the ship.

"Whoa, what went on here?"

"I have no idea," Tali said.

"Where are we?" Penn was too focused on flying to do anything else.

"Shouldn't you have checked that a while ago?"

"You set in the coordinates, I was busy trying to make sure we didn't get blasted into stardust."

"And you didn't bother to check this whole time after we got away?"

"I've been busy running diagnostics on the ship. We took some bad hits from some of those Republic fighters before we got away. It's not like we can change our course right now anyway. As long as this system's isn't controlled by the droid army I really don't care."

Tali sat down in the chair next to Penn and started allowed her hands to dance over the ship's buttons. "The computer says…the Aegis system. We're at the planet Aegis VII, to be exact. We're technically in Systems Alliance space… but it's restricted."

"That ship is huge."

"Identification tags it as the _Ishimura_…. of the Concordance Extraction Corporation."

"The Concordance Extraction Corporation?" Penn didn't immediately recognize the name. "They aren't affiliated with the Separatists, are they?"

"They're strongly affiliated with the Earth Government."

"Why is it so dark?"

"Looks like they've had some sort of accident," Tali said, "maybe massive power failure?"

"On a ship this large?" Penn fiddled with the ship's controls a little more tightly. He didn't want to crash into the debris by accident.

"It is an older model," Tali said, "maybe they didn't maintain it very well."

"Great," Penn grumbled as he opened a communications channel. "_Ishimura_, this is _Ebon Hawk_ of the Migrant Fleet. Come in _Ishimura_." The quarians waited several moments before they got a scrambled reply.

There was too much static in the message. _"Shuttle…. attack…bridge…"_

"We didn't catch that. _Ishimura_, please repeat."

The only answer they got was static after that.

"Alright, I'm going in."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"They didn't say no. And I don't want to admit it but I think the _Ebon Hawk_ is having some engine trouble. Damn Republic bastards need to pay attention to who they're shooting at. We might not be able to make another trip without taking a good look at it first. Besides, we need somewhere to dump our hostages. I'm not taking them all the way back to the Fleet. Might as well dump them here. Head on back and tell Lena what's going on."

"Right." Tali left the cockpit. Tali gave Lena a short rundown of their current situation, leaving out key details since they were speaking in front of their prisoners. The hostages did not need to know the _Ebon Hawk_ was having engine trouble or that they were going to be dumped soon.

The _Ebon Hawk_ effortlessly dodged several asteroids and made it into one of the _Ishimura_'s many open hangar bays. When the small freighter passed through the hangar doors slide shut automatically.

"All right, we need to find someone." Tali was the first off of the old freighter.

"Get moving." Lena pointed her grenade launcher at the prisoners. They filed down the loading ramp one by one. Lena and Penn came out last, their weapons drawn in case their hostages tried anything.

The quarians had taken the Separatists' weapons for themselves. Tali was holding onto Yayap's needler for safekeeping. Penn had Krunch's T-1 assault rifle strapped to his belt. Lena had Zako's ZK-II war-axe. The quarians were using their own weapons but thought it best to bring the others' weapons along with them, at the very least they would know where they were at all times.

The hangar looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie. What little light the room provided was very dim. There were small, barely noticeable streaks of red blood on the floor. Tools and crates were scattered around in disarray. They could hear the voice of the _Ishimura_'s VI computer in the background but it was very faint and they couldn't make out what the feminine voice was saying.

"Where the hell did you quarians take us?" Zako demanded.

"Shut up." Lena nudged him in the back with the business end of her grenade launcher.

"If you guys are going to chain us up and harvest our organs while we're still alive, I'd rather take the grenade launcher." Krunch's imagination was gruesome but appropriate given where they were.

"That can be arranged," Lena threatened.

"Really? Great. I'll take that grenade launcher then."

"What? No, shut up. You'll get a grenade _from_ the launcher if you don't-" A loud clanging noise cut off Lena mid-sentence.

"What was that?" Yayap finally asked.

"As if I'm supposed to know," Penn snapped.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Zako said.

"Me too," Yayap agreed, "I think we should leave."

"You're not going anywhere." Penn pointed his avenger rifle at Yayap.

Tali saw a figure move in one of the dark corners of the room. "Over there," she pointed.

"What? Where?" Penn turned to look.

Suddenly there was a scream… or a roar. Some sort of shriek rocked the hangar bay and chilled everyone to the bone.

Penn snapped up his avenger rifle and fired at some sort of bipedal creature that had started to charge at them.

Lena was about to fire her grenade launcher when something fell from the ceiling and nearly landed on top of her. The thing slashed at her with its sickle hands, missing Lena but cutting her grenade launcher in half.

The monster would have finished the job had Tali not hit it with a barrage from her shotgun, sending the thing sprawling to the floor. The abomination immediately got back up. Tali fired her shotgun again.

More monsters slowly started to appear from out of the darkness.

"Get back to the ship!" Zako yelled to Yayap and Krunch.

The Separatist trio broke from the quarians and ran for the _Ebon Hawk_'s loading ramp—only to stop short when a xenomorph blocked their path. A xenomorph with a grid-like scar on his elongated head.

"You again?" Zako said.

"There was a bug on the ship?" Yayap asked.

"Fuck!" Krunch turned around and ran as fast as his mechanical pants would allow him. Yayap switched on his active camouflage and disappeared from sight. Zako fell back on his ass in fear. The scarred xenomorph hissed and turned his attention away from the CIS officer. One of the monsters roared and charged the xenomorph. Zako got back up and ran as far away from the fight as he could.

"Why's this shit always happen to me?" Zako had no idea where he was running, though it didn't really matter where he was going so long as it was away from the hangar bay. One of the creatures decided to chase after him.

Zako ran as fast as he could, he could still hear the monster behind him. The creature's broken screams of anger a harbinger of the cyborg's impending doom.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" He stumbled into an elevator. The doors were slowly closing as the monster charged.

"Close, you goddam doors!"

The doors shut just as the monster was about to reach him. Zako breathed a sigh of relief—just as the monster forced the doors back open with its powerful arms. Zako quickly kicked the monster in the chest, sending it backwards. The doors slid shut again and the elevator started to go downwards.

The armored cyborg learned against the elevator wall, staring at the closed elevator doors, just waiting for them to be forced open again. Even with the elevator moving Commander Zako still expected the doors to suddenly burst open. But nothing happened. His back slid down the wall until he sat on the floor. Zako was exhausted.

* * *

Yayap could feel his muscles burn as he ran as fast as he could. The unggoy was tense; he hadn't faced an enemy like this in a very long time (if one didn't count his recent sortie on Oddworld). He had deactivated his cloaking ability. With all the noise he was making everyone and everything would know where he was anyway.

"Hey! Wait up!" Yayap called to Tali. The quarian mechanic had broken away from the main group and was running from a pair of monsters. Her shotgun did nothing more than knock them back a bit, so she ran. But the creatures chasing her had given up and smashed their way into a large air vent in the wall and disappeared.

"They're gone!" Yayap yelled, trying to get the quarian to stop before he lost sight of her completely.

During the whole mess in the hangar Yayap hadn't seen where Krunch and Zako had gone off to. Not to mention the other two quarians. He didn't want to lose Tali and get stuck on his own.

She finally stopped running and turned to look around. Her finger was on the trigger of her shotgun, not that the weapon did much.

"Where'd they go?"

"They went up a ventilation shaft."

"Perfect."

"What were those things?" Tali asked.

"I… I'm not sure. It looks like someone chewed on the ship's crew and spit them back out." Yayap looked around for any signs of danger. He sniffed at the air through his mask. "This ship stinks."

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know. I almost lost you."

"I hope they got away." Tali checked to make sure there weren't any air vents nearby. If there were she was sure the monsters would pop back out soon enough. Luckily there didn't seem to be any close by.

"We gotta go back and find the others," Tali said.

"They probably ran out of the hangar too. We're probably all scattered around this fucking ship now."

"Great. So, now what?"

"First things first. Weapons."

"I have weapons."

"I don't. Can I have my needler back now please?" Yayap's jet-black eyes stared into Tali's bright white ones.

"I trust you're not going to shoot me in the back if I give this to you?" Tali offered the unggoy his old weapon back.

"I didn't back when we were at Rupture Farms… so…"

"Yeah, you did shoot me."

"Oh yeah! I forgot. That doesn't count. We hadn't called a truce yet."

"So the truce is back on if I give you this gun?"

"Deal. I think we have worse things to worry about." Yayap took the needler.

"Sounds good. We need to try and find the others." The pair started walking down the dimly lit hall.

"Right. Let's be smart about this. I'll just call them up." Yayap's left forearm started to glow purple as he switched on his omni-tool. "Thanks for not taking our omni-tools, by the way."

"We figured if you guys were able to take the ship with omni-tools then you deserve it break free," Tali joked.

"I'll call them up. Then you call your friends. We all meet up and distribute weapons so everyone has something. Then we shoot our way back to your ship and get the fuck outta here."

"There might be a small problem…"

"What?"

"The _Ebon Hawk_ took some damage when we blasted away from Oddworld. We might not be able to leave until we have a look at the engine."

"Nothings ever simple, is it?"

Yayap was right; nothing was ever simple. He couldn't get Krunch or Zako on his omni-tool. When Tali tried contacting her friends, she couldn't get anything either. To make matters worse they were lost and not sure how to even get back to the hangar. Not that they would immediately want to in case those monsters were still around. The only good thing was they hadn't encountered any more of the creatures so far.

"Oh and about these creatures… I… I don't know how to put this. These things are similar to the Flood."

"What about a flood?" Tali asked.

"That's right, you wouldn't have heard about it." Yayap scratched at the back of his head. "They censored the shit out of that little problem."

"You've seen these things before?"

"No. But I've seen creatures similar to them. They're called the Flood. The Flood could use firearms. From what I've seen so far, these things do not. Or they haven't found any guns yet."

"Great… Care to explain?"

"The Flood are a parasitic alien organism. They would affect both the living and the dead, turning them into violent corpses whose only goal was to kill everything that wasn't Flood. They appeared right at the end of the Citadel-Covenant War. They were wiped to extinction as far as anyone knew, or the rest of the Galaxy would know of them. These creatures are similar in that they are infecting hosts but they look and sound different. Oh, and they smell different too. The Flood smell like rotting flesh mixed with expired scour cream. These things smell like rotting flesh mixed with moldy cheese."

Tali rolled her eyes, the unggoy didn't notice. He if had had been attentive it would have been difficult to see the expression from behind her faceplate.

* * *

Krunch's nerves were fried. He had spent forever being watched by a quarian with a grenade launcher and now some weird space zombie things were trying to eat him. That plus that fact that Yayap and Zako were nowhere to be found and Krunch was stuck with the quarians Penn and Lena. At least they had gotten away from the hangar and the monsters.

"What the fuck were those things?" Penn said, "they almost looked human."

"They did not look like any humans I've ever seen," the slig answered, "also, humans tend to die when you shoot them… those things, not so much."

"I don't know where we are. I can't find a terminal anywhere," Lena said, "this ship is a dump."

"Can I get my weapon back now?" Krunch asked.

"No," Penn flatly answered.

"Why not? In case you hadn't noticed, we just got mobbed by a bunch of space zombies. I'm pretty good in a fight. Without a gun all I can do is run away. That won't help you take down the zombies. I'm just security for the Magog Cartel. I'm not technically in the droid army."

"I'm not taking any chances. What does it matter to me if you're with the droid army or not?"

"You don't have a problem with droids?"

"We do. But we're not opening attacking the CIS."

"Then why was she helping geth infiltrate Oddworld?" Krunch pointed at Lena.

"I wasn't helping the geth!"

"Yeah right. I saw you."

"We were dropping off a few geth parts for pickup by another quarian. They were going to be taken back to the fleet for study. So we can try and find a better way to destroy them."

"Ohhhhhh. That sort of makes more sense. I was so sure quarians hated the geth."

"We do." Even though Lena gave up classified information about secret quarian activities, everyone seemed more comfortable now that everyone was on the same page.

"You're taking an awfully big chance not arming me…"

"He's right, you know," Lena told Penn, now suddenly on Krunch's side. "We could sure you an extra gun right about now."

"We _have_ his gun."

"It won't do us any good if you're not going to dual wield it with your avenger rifle. Or actually… you could give me his gun. I lost my grenade launcher. All I have left is this carnifex pistol."

"You have that axe from the human."

"I am not going to take these things on in a melee fight!"

"I promise I won't shoot you in the back… or in the front… or the side… or from below or above," Krunch offered, "take me at my word and add another fighter to the group, or deal with the space monsters on your own."

"Alright fine." Penn gave Krunch his rifle back. "You try anything and I'll put you down."

"Hey! I'm just trying to stay alive here!"

"Oh sure, give him the assault rifle instead of me…" Lena crossed her arms and stomped a foot to the floor.

"Right. So does anyone have any idea where the fuck we are?" Penn asked. They were all on edge, though to Krunch Penn seemed to be having a harder time of it than Lena was. It was hard to tell with them being stuck in their suits, the slig could only go by their movements and tone of voice.

"No…"

The trio froze as they heard a gurgling noise. They looked around trying to find out where it was coming from. Krunch was the first to spot the monster as it rounded a corner into view.

There was only one, and it seemed not to be in a hurry. The two quarians and the slig hadn't gotten a good look at the creatures before; the fight in the hangar had gone by too fast. They got a good look now though. The creature before them was disgusting. It looked like it was once human, but it had sharp blades jutting out of its hands. Its abdomen was slashed open and a small pair of arms protruded out from the thing's intestines.

Krunch was the first to open fire but his shots went wide, hitting the creature in its right arm. To everyone's surprise the T-1 assault rifle's bullets cut the limb off entirely. Penn and Lena started shooting the creature in the torso. The creature then suddenly decided it could eat bullets as if they were candy.

"No! Shoot the limbs!" Krunch deprived the creature of its left leg. It fell to the floor in a sickening thump and started to drag itself over to the trio with its remaining arm.

Penn and Lena finally figured it out and started shooting at the thing's last arm. When that came off the monster let out a howl of pain and seemingly died.

"Fucker doesn't like it when you shoot it in the arms or legs," Krunch said.

"Right." Penn was now very glad he had decided to give the slig his assault rifle back. "Let's try and find a terminal or something. Split up, but-"

"Split up? That's stupid!" Lena said.

"You didn't let me finish! I was going to say split up but stay in earshot. I know dividing our firepower right now is a stupid idea but we need to find out where we are, and fast!"

Krunch had already gone off to explore as the two quarians bickered with one another.

"Over here." Krunch waved the other two over. The slig had found a tram waiting station. "This big ass ship needs a fucking tram…" Krunch started rifling through some bags that were lying around.

"Makes sense." Lena walked over a tapped a few buttons, trying to call the tram to their waiting station.

"The hangar can't be that far away," Penn protested, "we don't need to ride the tram. We'll just end up further away."

"We're going to the command bridge," Lena said, "maybe someone's still alive and can explain the situation to us."

"Sounds good," Krunch said, "if the fucking tram would get here."

"Something's wrong." Lena fiddled with the controls some more.

"Well? What the fuck is taking so long?" Penn sounded harsher than he meant.

"There seems to be a problem with the whole tram system. Penn, would you give Tali a call and make sure she's not dead while I try to fix this?"

* * *

"_Tali? Tali, are you there? Do you read me?"_ Tali quickly sprang to attention and answered her omni-tool as fast as she could.

"Penn, it's me. I read you."

"_Good. You're alive. We were worried there for a bit."_

"I couldn't reach you on the comm for some reason."

"_Yeah, nice time for everything to fall apart."_

"Is Lena with you?"

"_Yeah, she's with me. No suit ruptures. We're both fine… for now."_

Yayap made a motion to Tali.

"I have the unggoy with me. Do you have any of the others?"

"_We have the slig. Don't have the armored human though. If he's not with you he's probably dead by now without a weapon. We armed the slig."_

"Yeah, I gave Yayap his gun back too."

"_Yayap?"_

"The unggoy."

"_Right."_

"_We found a tram waiting station."_ It was Lena's voice coming through now. _"But the system's offline. I finally got access to the ship's computer. There's a busted tram blocking up the whole system. If you can get if off the track, we can get the system moving again and get to the command bridge. We were planning on seeing if there are any survivors there that can tell us what the hell is going on."_

"Why bother?" Yayap cut in. "Why don't we just retake the hangar from those things, fix your fucking ship and get the hell out of here?"

"_You told him about the ship's problem?"_ Even over the comm, Tali could tell Penn was angry.

"As if it matters that he knows?"

"_Fine. Just get the damn broken tram off the track. Maybe the monsters will clear out of the hangar when we go to the bridge and we won't have to fight our way out of here. There's no reason for them to stay in the hangar if we're gone."_

"Unless, they're really smart and know to wait for us… or really stupid and just stand around," Yayap said.

"_Just fix the damn tram."_

"_We're transmitting you a layout of the ship and the coordinates."_ It was Lena's voice this time.

"Alright. We'll get it done." Tali promised. Her omni-tool got the information and she shut it down after figuring out which way they were supposed to be heading.

"Why just us?" Yayap asked as they walked. "They too lazy to come over and give us a hand?"

Tali hadn't thought about that. There was also another thing she hadn't thought about until just now. Given how calm Yayap was, Tali assumed he hadn't realized the problem yet.

"I-I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"You don't breathe oxygen, correct?"

"Yep. I breathe methane."

"I doubt we'll be able to find any on this ship. Once you run out…"

Yayap started to laugh. Tali was confused.

"Don't worry about it."

"Huh?" Tali was missing something. Either that or the unggoy was delirious.

"The Confederacy upgraded our equipment when the unggoy joined them. Our masks now have the ability to convert other types of gases into methane. I'll be fine so long as my mask isn't damaged."

"Oh… that's good to hear." Tali really didn't want to be alone on this ship. She would rather get back to Lena and Penn, but out of everyone else besides them on the _Ebon Hawk_, Yayap was the next best thing. They had managed to work together on Oddworld, for the most part. They were both trapped in their suits. They both came from species that were shunned by the Galaxy at large (quarians for creating the geth and unggoy for allying so closely to the Separatist Droid Army). Tali and Yayap were kindred spirits of sorts.

"Look, over there." Yayap pointed at something on the ground. The unggoy went over and picked it up. It was an audio log.

"_This is Benson, tram engineering. We think we've figured it out. Smith killed one! Listen; forget about shooting them in the body, you gotta cut off the limbs. Grab a cutter anything like that. Cut them apart!"_

Yayap downloaded the log to his omni-tool to replay later.

"Guess we just figured out why your shotgun doesn't work so well against them."

They continued down the wide corridor. There were a few bags lying about. It looked as if the ship's crew had tried to pack some of their belongings away before trying to get off the ship.

"The fools should have just left with their lives," Yayap said.

"Maybe they didn't understand what the threat was." Tali's feet bumped into a green bag, pushing it over closer to the wall.

"Look there's a dead one up ahead." Yayap pointed at a mangled corpse at the end of the corridor.

The corpse was directly in the path of where they needed to go. It may have been the one Benson had killed. It was such a simple thing; to walk around it but for some reason Tali was filled with dread.

Tali kept her eyes on the corpse the entire walk through the corridor. It didn't move. When they got closer she saw it wasn't breathing either. That didn't mean much, she wasn't even sure if the things needed to breathe.

Her grip on her shotgun tightened right as they reached the body. It was disgusting—and also moving! The thing sprang up. She jerked back reflexively, knocking into Yayap. Her shotgun went off but the blast was high and to the left—just where it needed to be. The creature's right arm was blown off. There was a horrible cracking sound as the thing's bones were obliterated and a small fountain of curdling blood shot out of the monster's exposed arm socket. The audio log did say to cut off their limbs.

The monstrosity was quick to recover; its missing limb did little more than make it angrier. Tali aimed high and to the right, obliterating the left arm this time. Howls of pain and anger filled the corridor.

"Die already!" Tali lowered her shotgun and blasted the legs clean off.

There was nothing more than a head on a torso now but it was still alive! Tali aimed her shotgun one last time and blew the head off. Even after all that, if the torso was still alive it had no way to harm them now.

"The Flood didn't do that."

"Do what?"

"Play dead."

The pair continued on past the torso. They would be much more wary if they find any more 'corpses.'

"If they all take that many hits I'm going to need more thermal clips."

"I'll handle the next one… provided you don't smash into me again."

They took a left and went through a door. The next area they were in was a tram tunnel. They were at the bottom, looking up they could see the rail track hanging above them.

There was a clanging noise but looking ahead they saw that it was nothing more than a malfunctioning door. The door was automatically opening and closing at a brisk pace. Given it never stopped or slowed down it was a miracle it hadn't burnt out or fallen off by now. But a broken door was definitely better than a near-indestructible space zombie.

"We have to go through here."

"That ain't gonna happen. There another way around?" Yayap asked.

"Not for a long way."

"I'm not running through that. Can you fix it? Or cut the power?"

"I don't know. Let me take a look." Tali moved to try and find the door's control panel to pry open but stopped when she saw something lying on the floor.

The quarian mechanic picked up a stasis module. It was just lying on the floor. Tali wasn't going to let it go to waste.

"What is it?" Yayap asked.

"Our way in." The mechanic fiddled with the device, trying to attach it to her arm.

There was a scream. This one was different from the other sounds they had heard before but it was clearly another one of the creatures that was infesting the ship.

Something crawled out from a vent in the floor. It walked on its hands and had a tail where its legs should have been.

Yayap turned and pulled the trigger on his needler. A stream of needles came out and homed in on the monster, imbedding themselves in its grotesque flesh. After enough needles went in, the monster exploded.

"Damn. Want to trade guns?"

"No."

Tali finished up with the stasis module and hit the door with a blast of blue light. The door's hyper-tantrum slowed to a snail's crawl.

"Come on."

The two walked through with ease. As they continued on they heard the door start to violently open and close again. It was a short walk through one more empty corridor before they reached the tram repair station. Tali suddenly understood why Penn and Lena didn't offer to join her on the assignment. She was already so close, if they were to join up it would have taken longer. And the longer they were stuck on this ship the worse off they were likely to be.

Tali was careful to survey her surroundings. She was not in the mood for any unpleasant surprises. She had enough surprises to last her a few years now. But if she made it home to the fleet this would be one hell of a story to tell.

Yayap took the lead this time, though he also seemed more guarded than before. The special ops soldier passed by the control console they needed to use.

"Hey, Yayap. Wait up."

The unggoy turned back around.

"It's over here." Tali fiddled with the controls for a minute. She was unfamiliar with the procedure but it wasn't difficult to figure out. The lights from the control panel danced across the quarian's faceplate.

"Got it." The docking claws started to move. They made a tremendous noise.

And that's when the air vents started to break apart.

"There! I see one!" Yayap fired his needler, only sticking enough needles in his target to cause a super-combine explosion that ripped the monster apart. The needler was incredibly effect against these creatures. Yayap was glad he happened to have a needler over a plasma pistol.

"Behind us!" Tali released her combat drone.

"Fuckers are smarter than I thought!" Yayap killed another one of the legless variants. "They attacked the moment there was a loud noise to cover their approach and they're coming from multiple directions!"

Tali could barely hear Yayap over the sounds of the broken tram being replaced combined with the screams of the creatures.

As soon as the tram was replaced and the room went silent the attacks ceased. Only a single monster was left out in the open, and Yayap easily finished him off with a round of needles.

The ship's VI announced: "Ship-wide tram system re-initialized. All trams now operational."

"I gotta be more careful. I'm gonna run out of ammo here. And I doubt these humans have needler rounds lying around."

"Hopefully I'll be able to find some thermal clips."

"With as effective as that shotgun of yours is, you might as well use your combat knife on them."

"Let's hope we get out of here before it comes to that." Tali set her omni-tool to life and gave her quarian friends a call. "Penn, you read me?"

"_Some static but we read you. What's the status?"_

"We got the broken tram off the track and put in a new one, but we can't board it from the repair station. We're sending it your way."

"_Copy that. We'll head for the bridge. You go back and see if the hangar is clear. See if you can get the Ebon Hawk in acceptable order."_

"Understood."

"We get all the fun jobs, don't we? You know… if they aren't in the hangar, how much you wanna get at least one of those things snuck aboard your ship?"

Tali didn't answer; she was not in a betting mood right now. It was a bet Yayap was likely to win anyway.


	12. Downfall

**Chapter 12: Downfall**

The _Millennium Falcon_ exited out of hyperspace to be met by the sight of a dark mining ship surrounded by debris from a planet crack. The _Ishimura_ still lazily hung in space above Aegis VII. The colossal planet cracker did not care that it had yet another new visitor (and considering how unhelpful the ship's VI was regarding quarantines and lockdowns the ship didn't care what was happening inside it either). The entire Citadel defense fleet could have shown up and the _Ishimura_ wouldn't give a shit. Why would it? It was just a ship.

"Give you one guess where those quarians went to," Zaeed spoke first.

"They could have just as easily gone into hyperspace again," 4-LOM said.

"I don't think so. Those quarians can't resist ships."

"They're not responding to our hails," Zuckuss said.

"Observation: It appears the ship is having technical difficulties."

Zaeed spoke: "All the more reason the quarians would go there. If they have enough balls to steal a Separatist officer in the middle of that battle they may well try and hijack that whole fucking ship."

"Commentary: I do not think so few quarians would be able to hijack such a large ship, Master. Quarians are not known for their combat prowess."

"They might call in some friends to help. We need to make this quick before any others show up."

The _Millennium Falcon_ minded the location of the debris as it chose one of the _Ishimura_'s many open hangar bays. Zaeed thought it odd that the ship would have so many bays wide open, as if they wanted anyone passing by to come aboard.

"Keep your eyes open, this could be a trap."

The small freighter was able to land without incident, which only served to heighten Zaeed's suspicions that something was going on.

HK-47 was the first to get off the beat up old freighter, followed by 4-LOM. When the droids gave the all-clear Zaeed and Zuckuss got out to have a look. Zaeed and Zuckuss weren't afraid of going out first; it was just easy to patch up a droid if the shooting started immediately. And since they had no idea where the quarians were and what the status of the ship's crew was it paid to play it on the safe side, at least for the moment.

"Announcement: I have picked up a transmission originating from the ship's bridge." HK-47 lit up his omni-tool and played the message for the whole group.

"_This is First Officer White… is dead… alien life forms… overrun… we can't hold out much longer… all hands report to the bridge…"_ the transmission finally gave in to static completely.

"What are they bitching about alien life forms for?"

"We better move quickly. Sounds like the quarians and their prisoner may not last long," Zuckuss said.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Zaeed muttered. The group of bounty hunters had the option to go right back aboard their ship and leave if they so chose. The one hiccup that might hinder them would be the possibility that the hangar bay doors wouldn't automatically open they way they had automatically closed when the _Millennium Falcon_ first entered the larger ship.

Any illusion of choice the little group had was shattered the moment they heard a disturbing cry. It was a horrible, ominous sound. It was loud and long and sounded vaguely like that of a whale.

"What the hell was that?" Zaeed brought his assault rifle up.

"I have no idea. But I think it would be best if we don't find out." Zuckuss had a very strong feeling they needed to get back on their own ship and leave.

A long, lanky bipedal figure emerged from out of the shadows. They heard the moan again; it was definitely coming from the gangly creature. The thing seemed to have the Galaxy's worst case of arthritis. The simply act of walking forward elicited terrible creaking from the thing's legs.

Zaeed was about to give the order to attack when something shot out from the creature's head. A weird tongue-like tentacle shot out and grabbed HK-47 by the neck.

"Blast the fucker!" Zaeed and Zuckuss were already shooting as Zaeed gave the needless order.

4-LOM shot the creature with his concussion rifle and blew the thing apart.

HK-47 ripped the tentacle from his neck. The creaking didn't stop and the group of mercenary bounty hunters saw that the creature had broken into tinier pieces that were moving on their own.

"Sonuvabitch!"

HK-47 activated the flamethrower embedded in his right wrist and flayed the entire group of creepy crawlies. The death screams of the little monsters prompted other roars and screams to echo through the hangar.

Seconds later Zaeed and his squad saw the creatures making the howling roars. These were different from the first, they weren't as tall and had blades coming out of their hands.

"I'm sicka this shit." Zaeed tossed one of his inferno grenades and lit three of the monsters on fire all at once. The monsters squealed and thrashed about as the flames slowly ate away at their rotting flesh.

HK-47 unleashed his flamethrower on another one of the monsters while 4-LOM sprayed the entire area with concussion shots from his rifle. The concussion blasts didn't knock the newcomers to pieces like they did to the first one. The creatures were merely stunned and were quick to regain their composure.

Something leapt from one of the dark corners of the room and landed on Zuckuss, knocking the gand to the floor. Zuckuss' attacker was different from the others; it had huge fangs and had a long tail instead of legs.

"Someone help me!" Zuckuss tried to wrestle the creature off of him. Huge fangs chomped dangerously close to the gand's masked face.

Zaeed was busy shooting the creatures 4-LOM couldn't finish off and 4-LOM himself could risk using his concussion rifle without killing Zuckuss. That left HK-47. The assassin droid aimed his ancient blaster rifle at the fanged aggressor and sent several rounds into its body.

The monster didn't slow and sank its fangs into Zuckuss' face anyway. HK-47 was forced to turn away and deal with an incoming attacker, leaving the gand to his gruesome fate.

When 4-LOM saw that his partner no longer had a face he leveled his rifle and fired a trio of concussion rounds that sent the gand and his killer into several bloody pieces.

Zaeed was pissed. This was not what he was expecting. He clipped the leg of another monster before sending a concussion shot right to its head.

Through the chaos HK-47's auditory sensors picked up a new series of sounds. It was clearly another aggressor but it was so much different from the others. Some sort of twisted, emaciated human approached the bounty hunters from behind. It was some sort of tortured tripod; its two feet were twisted into a single limb, forcing it to also walk with its arms to keep its balance. Its head was split in two as if someone had cut it in half with a sword. One of its arms had a huge yellow pustule on it.

HK-47 turned and shot the yellow growth, he had no real reason to target the pustule other than the fact that it made a good target. The assassin droid was rewarded as the creature violently exploded—unfortunately it was near the _Millennium Falcon_ when it did so. One of the _Millennium Falcon_'s landing supports was destroyed and the entire freighter came crashing down.

Something tore through the ceiling and landed on top of the downed freighter. The _Millennium Falcon_'s hull buckled under the thing's weight. With a roar the large monster hopped off the freighter and landed on the metal floor with a thud that shook the whole room. It started making its way over to the three survivors. It was clearly very top heavy as it used its massive arms to help it walk and keep its balance.

"Goddamit, we need to move!" Zaeed started moving to the first doorway out of the hangar he could see, prompting the two droids to follow suit.

They made it through the door and it shut behind them. They backed up and turned around, ready to slaughter anything that would try coming through the narrow entryway. Several moments passed, they could hear the creatures on the other side of the door, yet they weren't coming through.

"They have trouble with doors?" 4-LOM asked.

"Come on, we might as well head to the bridge." Zaeed hooked his avenger rifle onto his back. "We're not getting out on the _Falcon_ now."

They didn't have much choice in the matter now. They couldn't hold the hangar with the arrival of that huge creature and their heavy weapons were onboard their ship, a ship that was now wrecked. If they wanted out of here, Zaeed figured they would have to take the quarians' freighter by force. It was likely the original crew of the planet cracker had all but fled, taking whatever shuttles and escape pods they could. It would have to be the quarians freighter or be stranded. But they needed to get to the bridge first; it would be easier to find where the quarian's freighter was from there. This was not how this mission was supposed to go.

* * *

The tram finally pulled up to the two waiting quarians and their temporary slig ally. The trio had waited in silence, mindful that any noise could reveal the arrival of a new foe. Nothing had come across their path in quite some time and they found that the waiting and watching was actually worse than fighting.

Then it finally came. The tram had ground to a creaky halt, but now there were footsteps approaching their location.

"I hear somethin'." Krunch pointed his rifle in the direction of the footsteps.

"Not again," Lena complained, "the tram is right here. Let's just leave it."

"It sounds like one. Let's kill it," Penn said. "One less to deal with later."

Lena would rather have just gotten on the tram and left. "Alright…"

The trio had their weapons drawn, waiting for the owner of the footsteps to turn the corner into view.

The being turned the corner… "Don't fire!" Penn called out. Krunch had nearly let loose a hail of bullets; the slig was certainly trigger-happy.

Their target was not one of the space zombies that stalked them. It was nothing more than a slender female human with red hair.

"You're not human," the redhead said.

"No shit. What gave it away? My mandibles, green skin, or the mechanical pants?" Krunch lowered his rifle, but the two quarians didn't.

"We haven't seen any humans since we got here. Who are you? What's going on?" Penn demanded.

"My name is Alissa Vincent. I'm the Chief Security Officer for the _Ishimura_. We encountered some kind of alien life form. They've taken over the bodies of the crew."

"Aliens?" Krunch said.

"Some kind of invasion?" Lena asked.

"I'm not sure. What I do know is that the aliens came up from the colony on Aegis VII. The miners on the planet… they found some sort of ancient alien artifact. They brought it onboard the _Ishimura_. I think the alien outbreak has something to do with the artifact. The aliens must be stopped. This ship… and the colony below must be destroyed."

"Not while we're on it, it isn't," Penn said.

"This ship has an all-human crew. How did you get here?"

"We dropped out of hyperspace and couldn't get any communications from your ship. We figured you were having some technical assistance. We decided to land in one of your hangar bays and offer what help we could."

"Why did you come here in the first place?"

"We made a random jump." Penn kept his answer short and purposefully left out the part where they had taken hostages and were fleeing from the Confederacy of Independent Systems on accusations that they were aiding the geth.

"Fucking fantastic."

"Can we continue this fuckin' conversion on the damn tram, please?" Krunch cut in, "instead of standing around like a bunch of assholes just waiting for the zombies to come eat us?"

"Where are you going?" Vincent asked as the group boarded the tram.

"To the bridge," Penn replied, "we were going to see if we could find some answers there. But now that we ran into you that isn't necessary." The last part was addressed to the slig, who didn't seem to get they didn't need to go to the bridge anymore.

"It still is."

"Why?" the quarian demanded.

"There was still bridge staff alive last time I was there. They could still be alive. We have to go save them. You said you came here on a ship right? We get the bridge crew and get back to your ship and get the hell outta here."

"Fine. I don't care," Krunch said, "just type in the destination and get this piece of shit moving."

Vincent complied, typing the bridge in as their destination on a large touch screen plastered to one of the walls of the tram.

"Finally…" Krunch let out a sigh of relief as the tram started moving. "You three are the dumbest bunch of assholes I've ever met," the slig mumbled to himself. Could they not see the benefit of talking while riding a moving tram rather than just waiting at the station doing nothing? At least in the moving tram they weren't so likely to be attacked by the monsters.

"One problem with your plan, Vincent," Lena said.

"What's that?"

"Our ship may be damaged. When we came aboard your ship, we were willing to help with your problems… in exchange for helping us with ours."

"Fuck… do you know what's wrong with your ship?"

"No. We had to abandon it when those things mobbed us," Penn explained, "there were others in our group but we got separated. But we know at least two others are still alive right now. I told them to go back and check on the ship to see if those creatures have cleared out of the hangar yet."

Vincent rubbed the bridge of her nose. She looked extremely haggard. "Right, then there's still a chance." Their situation was bad, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than Vincent's predicament before she randomly came across the two quarians and the slig.

Alissa Vincent was the last member of her security team who was among the living. She had also lost her weapon; a plasma saw, to the _Ishimura_'s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Terrence Kyne, who was trying to scuttle the ship in order to stop the outbreak from spreading beyond Aegis VII. The told the quarians and the slig as much, and they were not happy to learn that the planet cracker was being purposefully sabotaged. She tried to allay their fears, telling them that Kyne had likely been killed by the aliens at this point and shouldn't be doing any more damage to the ship. If they worked fast they still had a chance of escaping.

The two quarians and the slig finally got around to introducing themselves to Vincent when the tram came to a stop. The group got out with Lena going first.

"The bridge is this way."

"We'll follow your lead." Penn waved the human to go first.

It was a short walk through a hallway and a sharp left turn at a store kiosk and they found themselves at the bridge. They were met by three humans pointing pistols at them. The humans immediately lowered their weapons when they saw the newcomers weren't hostile.

"Alissa! Where the hell have you been?" A human in cyan-colored glasses asked.

"Miss me that much, Chic?"

"Things are bad. We can't hold out much longer. The bridge isn't safe." There were two of the creatures lying dead on the deck, indicating the bridge crew had already fended off a small attack or two.

"No where is safe."

"Who are they?" Chic motioned over at the three aliens he didn't recognize.

"Our way off this ship."

* * *

It had been quite a chore, but Tali and Yayap were finally able to reach the hangar that held the _Ebon Hawk_. Their encounters with the hostile alien life forms had been few and far between and were nothing the pair couldn't handle. The creatures tended to attack on their own recently and Tali made mention of this, observing that their fortunes had taken a turn for the better. Yayap's attitude was in the opposite direction. He figured the fewer of the monsters they came across; the more likely that was a bad sign. Yayap theorized it was possible they were congealing in a specific location, mostly likely being the hangar bay where the _Ebon Hawk_ was.

Tali was brought to a halt as Yayap held up his hand and blocked her path.

"You stay here. I'll go check it out."

"Without me? I don't think so."

"Relax. I'm not gonna take your ship and run. I don't even know how to fly it."

"_How_ can I be sure you don't know how to fly it?"

"Because that thing's a piece of shit. Does it look like I can fly that bucket of bolts? You'll just have to trust me."

"I dunno…"

"I can turn invisible and sneak in and out without any of the monsters noticing me. It you just wanna barge in with that glowing faceplate of yours, than be my guest. If there's too many, you'll die. I won't. I'll still be able to sneak away if things turn out bad."

"All right, fine." Tali gave in. "You better come back."

"Don't worry, I will. I'm not going to leave behind my meat shield."

Yayap went on by himself. He switched on his active camouflage and headed into the hangar.

The lighting was poor but Yayap could make out the creatures just fine. There seemed to be more of them now than when they first fled the area _and_ there seemed to be different variations.

The special ops unggoy slinked about the area for a few minutes, trying to get a handle on precisely what they would be up against. He wasn't going to start a fight now but they were going to have to at some point if they wanted to get back to the freighter.

He made a note to observe the creatures' behavior. Most of the time they just aimlessly wandered about the room, occasionally standing in place as if on guard duty. They made a few guttural grunts and groans but nothing like the death howls Yayap heard them make when they locked onto their prey.

There was one particular creature that disturbed Yayap more than all the others. Its head was split open vertically and its legs had been distorted into a single limb, forcing it to use its arms to keep balance when walking or standing. But it wasn't the thing's appearance that disturbed Yayap so much; it was the noises the thing made. It sounded so much different from the others. The others often sounded like some sort of rabid demons from some alien hell, yet the tripod almost sounded like it was trying to speak. It sounded like it was in horrible pain, and Yayap wondered if there was anything left of the original host's mind. If there was it was a fate crueler than death.

Content with the success of his short reconnaissance mission, Yayap silently backed out of the hangar and found Tali where he had left her.

He was still invisible as he approached her. She paid no attention to his approach, proving just how quiet Yayap could be when he wanted to. Active camouflage made him invisible; it didn't muffle any sounds he made.

He switched off his cloaking right as he made his way beside her.

The quarian jerked and pointed her shotgun at him. "Keelah! Don't do that! I nearly shot you."

Yayap couldn't help but laugh at the quarian's reaction.

"That's not funny!"

"Yeah it was."

"You wouldn't think it so funny if I shot you."

"I'm sure my shields would hold against that puny shotgun of yours."

"So, is the way clear?"

"It doesn't look good but I think there are more of those things in there than before. There were at least eight of them that I could see. Most of them are those slasher types with the blade hands."

"Slasher types?"

"What else would I call 'em?"

"Right."

"There was a pair that walked with their arms and had tails instead of legs. And there was some weird tripod thing."

"Too many for us to take on by ourselves. Looks like we're gonna have to wait for the others to get here. I hope they're doing alright…"

* * *

Alissa Vincent was almost finished explaining to First Officer White and Second Officer Chic their plan of action on how they were going to get off the _Ishimura_. It was plain on the female human's face that she was glad that she had almost gotten almost everyone on the same page and they could start to implement their plan of action. Of course nothing was ever simple and a new development interrupted them before they could even inform the rest of the bridge crew what was going on.

"Quarians!" An armored human and two droids had just stridden onto the deck of the command bridge. All three had weapons drawn up.

"Who the fuck are you?" Krunch brought his own weapon up to greet the newcomers.

"Stand down!" Vincent hollered. "What the fuck is going on? We don't need this shit right now!"

"We're here for the quarians," the armored human said.

"Who the fuck are you?" Penn pointed his rifle back at the belligerent human and his two droids.

"We're here for that Confederate officer you kidnapped."

Krunch lowered his weapon and backed up a few steps; unsure about which side he should be on.

"Confederate officer? As in the Confederacy of Independent Systems?" Vincent asked.

"That is correct," 4-LOM answered.

"You left out the part where you kidnapped a Separatist officer." Vincent turned to Penn and Lena.

"Didn't matter at the time," Penn quickly said.

"Hey! If you're here for the officer then I'm with you." The slig joined with the new group and leveled his assault rifle at Lena and Penn.

"Traitor," Lena hissed.

"What'd you expect? Fuckin' dumbass."

"He's the officer?" Chic asked. The human had lowered his pistol; he wanted no part in a firefight that had nothing to do with him or the _Ishimura_ crew.

"No. The officer we're after is human," Zaeed clarified.

"The officer isn't here," Penn explained, "we lost him."

"Convenient excuse."

"And also the truth."

"Hey! I'm with the CIS! You're looking for Commander Zako. You getting him out of here, you're getting me out too. There is a special ops unggoy here as well that needs to come with us."

"In case you haven't noticed we don't have time for your petty squabbles," Vincent growled.

"We _have_ noticed. Which is why we're taking these quarians into custody and getting the fuck out of here." Zaeed kept his rifle up and ready to fire.

"You're not taking us anywhere," Lena said.

"It's four against two, you don't stand a chance," Krunch taunted, "_and_ you don't have that grenade launcher anymore."

Vincent was getting really fed up right now. They had an alien infestation to worry about yet everyone was ready to shoot each other. What burned her ass was that she currently didn't even have a weapon of her own right now. "Look, you can all kill each other _after_ we get off this ship. How does that sound?"

A grotesque howling noise broke the standoff and everyone could hear the sounds of rotting meat shuffling through the hall that led to the bridge.

"Truce?" Penn asked.

"You got yourself a deal." Massani agreed and turned around just in time. An eldritch abomination had just rounded the corner into everyone's view.


	13. Intensive Care

**Chapter 13: Intensive Care**

Commander Zako climbed up a ladder and made it to a tram waiting station. There was blood and body bags everywhere. Amidst the dead there was a single survivor. She was sitting on the floor with her back propped up against the wall.

"Shhh…shhhh…it's alright, McCoy. He's here…nothing to be afraid of. I knew you would come…just like you said. Wait…you're not him…you're not the right one…"

"What are you talking about?" Zako moved to help the woman.

"Not the one…" the women trailed off.

"Hey come on, you need medical attention."

"I'm going. McCoy wants to take me…to the shuttle…" the woman slumped over on the floor, dead.

"That's just great," Zako complained, "first person I find turns out to be a crazy dead woman."

He picked up the item she had dropped, realizing it was a kinesis module. Zako attached the device to his right gauntlet. The FR-8 shock trooper armor Zako wore had integrated modular weapon mounts on the gauntlets; it was a simple task to attach to the kinesis module. It was a poor substitute for a weapon but it was better than nothing.

To his left, Zako noticed a store kiosk. Perhaps he could procure a weapon from it. Though it would be pretty ridiculous for a kiosk to be selling weapons on a mining ship. It was still worth a shot. Accessing the kiosk Zako was able to learn that he was aboard a planet cracker ship named the _Ishimura_.

Zako's right forearm erupted in violet light as he activated his omni-tool. He had no credits on him and he couldn't wirelessly access his bank account. The ship's comm system was down and Zako didn't have the range to wirelessly access any network on his own this far out in the middle of nowhere. He was stuck. So the Separatist officer planned to just hack into the store and take whatever he wanted. The omni-tool soon beeped back at its owner.

"What do you mean not compatible? Stupid ancient piece of shit!" Zako kicked at the store with his heavy metal boot. The kiosk… the whole ship was so damn old it wasn't compatible with modern omni-tools.

Zako tried to simply break the store open but it wouldn't budge. Eventually he heard a loud moan in the distance. He decided it was best to move on before attracting any monsters with the racket he was making.

The Separatist officer walked down a hallway. There were long streaks of blood, as if someone had dragged a leaky body bag through the whole corridor.

Zako opened the door and found himself in a hub. There was blood everywhere. Flies could be heard buzzing around some of the body bags. Zako's helmet filters protected him from most of the horrid stink that permeated the room.

One of the doorways had been heavily barricaded, though there were two other doors that were clear of clutter and unlocked. The cyborg scavenged around for a weapon or anything of value. He was only able to find a few hundred credits lying around. He went to the nearby kiosk and looked through the inventory. There was nothing much except ammo for tools and weapons he didn't have as well as a few RIGs that would offer less protection than the armored suit he currently wore. He decided to purchase some medi-gel.

Satisfied with his purchase, Zako then chose one of the doors that wasn't barricaded at random and went through it.

A series of winding corridors led the Separatist to a large lab. When Zako took a few steps in the room, the door behind him slid shut and the quarantine alarms started to go off.

"Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated," the ship's computer announced.

There was a roar followed by a vent cover breaking apart.

"Damn… Thank you, quarantine… for locking me in with these motherfuckers."

Zako picked up a wastebasket with kinesis and hurled it at the monster. The impact of the trashcan didn't do anything to the creature.

Another vent broke apart. But this time a xenomorph crawled out. Zako saw it and instantly recognized the grid scar on its head. It was the same xenomorph from Oddworld that had somehow managed to stow away on the _Ebon Hawk_. Now it was wandering around on the _Ishimura_.

"Hi, Grid. You following me around or something? Care to help me out?" Even on death's doorstep, Zako couldn't give up sarcasm. He had also decided to give the xenomorph a name, considering how many times they had encountered each other.

To Zako's surprise, the xenomorph attacked the monster, killing it in seconds. Zako was now left with Grid; he noticed one of the spider-scorpion creatures that was an early part of the xenomorph lifecycle trailing close to the adult xenomorph for protection.

"What, are you going to feed me to your facehugger there? Does it not like the taste of rotting space zombies?"

Grid merely hissed at Zako. More vents blew outward and the xenomorph went about killing four more of the infected creatures. The fighting was unlike anything ever seen before. The opposing monsters were vicious fighters seemingly designed with the sole purpose of killing, but the xenomorph was much faster and stronger. Grid kept seizing his opponents' arms mid-strike and ripping them out. Even without arms the infected forms of the _Ishimura_'s crew continued to attack until the xenomorph also deprived them of their heads and legs, leaving nothing but nauseating half-open torsos behind.

The quarantine alarms finally fell silent.

"Quarantine lifted," the ship's computer said.

_Quarantine lifted? The dumbass ship isn't reading the xenomorph in front of me?_

The facehugger went over and latched onto Grid's right forearm. The xenomorph hissed at the Separatist commander one last time before disappearing into the vents.

"Okay then. See you later, Grid. Thanks for not eating me."

The cyborg started to look around the medical wing, trying to find something to fight with. Once again his search turned up little except for a few scattered credits.

_Why didn't the xeno kill me? Or have his pet face rape me? Maybe the impregnation process would take too long… or he thinks I'm an inferior host._ Zako wondered. _Maybe… maybe he's using me as bait for the space zombies! That has to be it. Nothing else makes since. He's outnumbered. So he's using me as bait and killing the other creatures with sneak attacks. He's a smart one. Gotta get the fuck out of here. He manages to kill everything and then he won't have a reason to let me keep living anymore._

Zako noticed writing on the wall. Closer inspection revealed it had been written in blood. It was somewhat difficult to make out the first word. _Wish the vents?_ Zako wondered. _What does that mean… Oh… watch the vents. That's your dying message? Really?_

Zako went into a medical office and was immediately drawn to an audio log lying on the floor in the middle of the small room. Seeing as there weren't any bloodthirsty monsters about for the time being, Zako played the log.

"_I finally convinced Jurgens to show me the video feed from the colony. And what I saw was glorious. Breathtaking. Miners undergoing a transformation into something extraordinary. I must know more. Even as the believer in me wants to become one of them, the scientist needs to uncover their secrets. I need to study one of these… necromorphs, as Kyne so clinically puts it. I need to witness this infection firsthand. Perhaps that patient from the colony…"_

"Necromorphs?" Zako said aloud as he downloaded the log to his omni-tool. "Fucking perfect. First xenomorphs, now necromorphs. I wonder what the next morph is gonna be." He scoured the office. Not finding anything useful, he left.

The CIS officer took an elevator down to the lower floor. It was a painfully slow ride. Elevators were nothing compared to the turbo lifts Zako was used to. He never understood why the Citadel systems couldn't get their act together when it came to elevator technology.

Zako saw something on the floor. He didn't know why he was drawn to the particular item; the floors were often covered with blood or garbage on this ship. But he walked over and grabbed the item. Realizing it was a video log he decided to play it.

"_What in god's name is going on down there?"_

"_I think that's precisely the point, Doctor. God's work."_

"_I'm not so sure of that… We have to assume that the colony's problems are somehow connected to the Marker."_

"_You can assume all you want to. I do not. The Marker is glorious and divine, you—you know that."_

"_God moves in mysterious ways."_

"_Anyway, we'll have it on board tomorrow. You can analyze it all you want to. What are you so worried about?"_

"_Worried? Captain, people are dying down there. Killing each other. Is this madness the 'transformation' Unitology teaches us?"_

"_Doctor… Terrence… there will always be risk when the stakes are high. And here, they are enormous. It could change everything."_

The other man, the captain, walked out of sight.

"_That's what worries me."_

"What the hell? What does Unitology have to do with this?" Zako download the recording to his omni-tool so he could play it again later. He didn't think much of Unitologists and their weird beliefs. It was just some kooky Earth religion as far as he cared.

Not finding much else, Zako backtracked and tried the other open door at the medical hub.

* * *

Zako heard a noise. A constant thump… thump… thump. Like someone was punching a power loader with a meaty hand. He quickly followed the sound, knowing it might lead to one of the monsters… one of the necromorphs. But he had to be certain. And if his theory was true and it was a necromorph, than Grid would show up and kill it. If not, then Zako would just have to run for it.

But he didn't see a necromorph. It was a human! Or at least it looked to be. Something was wrong. The survivor was hitting his head against the wall.

"Hey!" Zako ran even faster, thrilled to find someone alive.

As soon as the commander was in grabbing distance the survivor smashed his head into the wall one final time. There was a sickening crack and the human slumped over to the floor, dead.

"Damn it!"

He looked at the corpse. The man was lacking flesh on his torso and had his ribcage exposed. Zako couldn't say he wouldn't also commit suicide if he were in such an obviously painful condition. Though he wasn't quite sure he had the resolve to bash his head open on the wall.

Continuing onward, the hallway started to be bathed in a glowing green hue.

A sign on the wall informed Zako that he had reached the ship's Bioprosthetics Lab. He didn't really care, if doubted he'd be able to find anything useful here but shouting ushered him forward.

"C'mon! C'mon! Let me out!" A lab worker was banging on the other side of a glass window.

"Hang on! I'm coming!" Zako ran towards the worker and noticed the door on the left. He fumbled with the door. It was locked.

"Hey! Get me out of here, please!"

"Got it!" The door slid open.

Zako ran for the survivor but some weird barbs flew through the air and the lab worker's head suddenly exploded.

"Shit!"

Zako saw the worker's murderer… a baby. Well, it wasn't really a baby, not anymore. It was some perverted variant of a necromorph. Looks like the alien infestation had gotten into the ship's supply of clone infants.

The creature leapt at Zako, grabbing onto him and stabbing him with three long tentacles that jutted from out of its back. Zako's shields held, protecting him from any harm.

He grabbed the creature off of him and dropkicked it. It let out a high-pitched death squeal and didn't move.

_I… I just dropkicked a baby? That was pretty awesome. Good thing these little babies aren't very durable…_

Zako kept going. There were still plenty of healthy, normal-looking clone infants gently bobbing up and down in most of the nutrient baths. Some corporations (such as the Concordance Extraction Corporation) partook in the act of cloning for the use of growing and replacing lost body parts. The practice was frowned upon by several moral and religious groups throughout the civilized Galaxy. Cloning for the purpose of replacing limbs wasn't a common practice due to how expensive and morally questionable it was but corporations like the CEC somehow found it cheaper to clone lost limbs than give their workers a safe working environment.

Zako picked up the yet another audio log off the ground and played it. The Separatist noticed it somewhat odd that he kept finding the things on the floor rather than on tables or counters but the ship was in a rather big mess right now.

"_You found something down there, didn't you?"_ Zako remembered the voice from one of the audio logs he found earlier.

"_Yes… we found something."_ Zako also recognized the second voice. It was the doctor from the video log he had found earlier, the one that was talking with the ship's captain.

"_So, the texts were right all this time."_

"_I wouldn't be certain about that. There was nothing divine in what I saw."_

"_We must embrace this. We are the first witnesses!"_

"_Mathius isn't letting anyone down on the colony. It's under quarantine until we learn more."_

"_To hell with Mathius! He of all people should know that this is greater than him, or the operation, or even the company. This is our deliverance!"_

"_Keep your damn voice down. People are dying down there."_

"_Only the worthless and the unbelievers. But I believe. Do you believe? Terrence? Do you?"_

Once again the commander downloaded the log onto his omni-tool. "If I find enough of these things maybe I can piece together what's going on." Zako didn't know who he was talking to, but he just felt like hearing a voice. Even if it was his own. He was getting tired of being stuck alone on this ship.

"_Karl…"_ Zako heard vague and haughty whispers call out his first name. It felt as if the voices were emanating from inside his own skull yet also sounded as if someone was softly whispering to him from across the room. He looked around and found no one. This was not a good time to be losing his nerve… or his sanity. He also found it odd that the whispers (imaginary or not) addressed him by his first name. Few individuals (aside from family) ever used his first name and those that did call him Karl didn't do it very often.

As he started to move again another of the baby necromorphs burst through the glass window to his side. Zako stomped on the little necromorph but it didn't die. He did manage to stun it, so he brought his big metal boot down on it again. Yet this time he also magnetized his boot, bringing it down to the metal floor with much more force. He little tricked worked and the necromorph died this time.

"Ha! Guess I don't need Grid looking out for me after all." Though Zako did wonder where the xenomorph had gone off to. He had encountered two of the little necromorph babies now and the not once did the xenomorph show himself to help out. Zako was beginning to think this theory that the xenomorph was using him as bait had been wrong.

Heading into another new room Zako found another audio log and played it.

"_Science log, Chief Science Officer Dr. Kyne reporting. The colony's problems concern me greatly. I have no doubt they are somehow linked to the discovery of the Marker, but the exact nature of that connection is still unknown. Almost forty percent of the colonists are experiencing a form of dementia. The obvious symptoms are acute depression, insomnia and hallucination. Incidence of violence and even murder also indicate extreme paranoia. Dr. Mercer has advised that I bring some of the affected on board for study. Dr. Welland, the planet-side psychiatrist, has reported that his own analysis has been fruitless. I'm hesitant to rely on Dr. Mercer at this point, but I need his expertise. We need solutions and we need them quickly."_

"Dr. Terrence Kyne again?" Zako was able to piece together the doctor's full name from hearing the various logs scattered around.

"It would be nice if this guy was still alive. I'm sure he could explain this mess." Zako once again downloaded the log for later use.


	14. New Arrivals

**Chapter 14: New Arrivals**

"_Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just talk to someone. It's all falling apart here. I can't believe what's happening…it's strange…such a little thing…"_

"How many times have you watched that thing?" Kendra Daniels broke Isaac Clarke's zombie-like trance. Clarke had been using his RIG to replay the same video file over and over again.

"Guess you really miss her. Don't worry; we're almost there. You'll be able to look her up once we're aboard. Sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do."

"All right everyone, we're here. Synching our orbit now." Zach Hammond, the leader of the _Kellion_ stated. The small CEC shuttle had finally left shock space and was bearing towards Aegis VII.

"All this trouble over that chunk of rock."

"Deep space mining is a lucrative business, Ms. Daniels. Aegis VII is a gold mine, according to prospector's reports. Cobalt, silicon, osmium…now, where is she? There she is. We have visual contact."

"So that's the _Ishimura_? Impressive…"

"Biggest planet cracker in her class. And it looks like they already popped the cork."

"Why is it all dark?" Kendra asked. "I don't see any running lights."

"Corporal, take us in closer and hail them. And stay clear of that debris field. We're here to fix their ship, not the other way around."

"_Ishimura_, this is the emergency maintenance team of the _Kellion_ responding to your distress call. Come in, _Ishimura_," Corporal Chen tried to hail the large ship.

"You're going to need to boost the signal if their power is low," Kendra snapped with a tint of clear frustration in her voice.

"Yes, we know. Boost the signal. More," Zach said.

"Never heard of a total communications blackout on one of these things. You'd think with a thousand people on board, someone would pick up the phone."

Isaac barely listened to the conversation; he was too busy thinking about finding his girlfriend, who was aboard that ship somewhere.

They received unintelligible mumbles as their response.

"What is that?" Chen asked.

"It's a busted array like we thought. Sounds like they're having problems with their encoder. You get us down there and Isaac and I can fix it. Forty-eight hours max."

"Alright, you heard the lady. Take us in. Let's see what needs fixing."

"Automatic docking procedure is go," Corporal Johnston reported.

The _Kellion_ suddenly rocked.

"What the hell?"

"Sir, the autodock-"

"What is it?" Hammond demanded.

"We're off-track! We're going to hit the hull!"

"Hit the blast shields! Switch to manual. Now!" Hammond ordered

"Are you insane? Abort!" Kendra snapped.

"No! We can make it inside! Corporal, I gave you an order!"

Chen made a split-second decision and decided to follow Hammond's order and he piloted the ship towards the _Ishimura_. He wasn't sure why but he had been so tempted to just back off. The _Kellion_ barely made it inside the hangar. The landing had not been soft.

"Is everyone okay?" Hammond asked.

"What? What the hell were you thinking? Were you trying to get us killed?"

"I just saved our asses, Ms. Daniels!" If we had aborted at that speed and distance, we would have smashed right into the side of the _Ishimura_. Now settle down, and let's get to work. Corporal, report!"

"I'm not getting any readings from the port booster and we've lost comms and autopilot. It'll take some time to fix." Chen gave out the report on the _Kellion_, yet all the while the corporal couldn't help but think Hammond was a smug jerkass. How could Hammond have just claimed to have saved everyone's ass when it was Chen who had done all the flying?

The ever-silent Isaac Clarke donned his helmet as Kendra made sure everyone's RIGs were synched up and ready.

"All right, let's get some extra hands from the flight deck to help us out," Hammond said as the group shuffled out of the _Kellion_. Everyone was a bit shaken up from the near crash but no one bothered to put a hustle in their step.

"_Use run to move quickly."_ Isaac heard a computer voice. At first he thought it was the _Ishimura_'s VI but then noticed that no one else heard the feminine voice. When he thought about it, it seemed like the voice was in his own head. Clarke shrugged it off as nerves and didn't mention it to anyone.

"You didn't lose power to the port booster. You lost the port booster! Unbelievable," Kendra complained as she saw the side of the ship.

The crew of the _Kellion_ was not met by any of the _Ishimura_'s crew. Chen thought the whole situation was weird but kept his opinion to himself.

"Guess the power's down everywhere. Isaac, get over here and hack the door pad."

"_Look for blue holograms to activate."_ Isaac heard the feminine computer voice in his head again. It was so weird that it kept stating odd obvious things. He just tried to ignore it.

Isaac silently hacked the door open, just as he was told to. It only took him a few seconds. The group of five entered the flight lounge.

"Seems like everyone was trying to pack in a hurry," Kendra observed.

"There should be a security detail in here," Hammond said.

"Yeah, well there's not. There's nobody here. I can't pick up any broadcasts," Kendra said.

"That security console is still live. Isaac, log in and see what you can find. Kendra, get that elevator back online."

"Power's dead. I can't."

"Then re-route the damned power! Look, if we all cooperate, we can figure this out a lot sooner. Let's get that computer display up, Isaac."

Clarke heard the computer voice in his head yet again: _"Use the locator system to find your next objective."_ Isaac already knew how to use his locator system. Why was this weird voice no one else could hear telling him this?

The engineer wordlessly completed his task.

Chen noticed that Johnston, his co-pilot had a look of concern on his face. It was clear that Daniels was pissed and Hammond was already fed up with her constant complaining. If anything about their unusual situation was bothering Clarke, Chen couldn't tell: the engineer hadn't spoken a word and his facial features were hidden behind his helmet.

"Huh. That doesn't look good. She's taken a lot of damage," Johnston said.

"The tram system's online. The air seems to be flowing again. That's a start."

The quarantine procedure suddenly activated.

"What the hell was that?" Kendra demanded.

"Automatic quarantine must have tripped when the filtration system restarted. Everybody relax…"

They heard the sound of metal violently being broken apart.

"What was that? Did you hear that?"

"I'm not sure…"

Something fell from the ceiling near Johnston.

"What the hell?"

There seemed to be some bipedal creature in the room, though no one could make it out clearly with the strobe light effect the quarantine alert lights were giving off.

"I don't know! Something's in the room with us!"

Suddenly, Johnston's RIG hard-lined… he had been decapitated.

"Jesus! Open fire! Open fire!" Hammond and Chen fired their pulse rifles at the hostile creature.

"Kendra! Power!" Hammond yelled over the sounds of gunfire and alarms.

The creature wouldn't go down.

"Kendra!"

"Come on… come on. Got it!"

Hammond, Kendra and Chen fell back. Clarke was separated from the rest of the group.

Another vent cover was blown off, and another monster started to crawl out. This one was right near Clarke.

"_Isaac, get the hell out of there!"_

"_The door's unlocked, run!"_

The engineer made his way out of the flight lounge, running for his life. Clarke could hear one of the things right behind him. He reached a door to an elevator and punched the button for another floor, it didn't matter which as long as it wasn't here.

The doors shut just before the monster reached Clarke. The doors suddenly opened up again and the creature was just about to strike the defenseless engineer with its blade hands when the doors shut on it, cutting its head and left arm clean off.

The elevator started to go down. Clarke was stuck with the monster's head and arm for the ride. The middle-aged engineer took a look at the thing's face… it looked human. But something was off about it as if someone had taken a normal human face and put it through a rusty meat grinder.

When the elevator finally stopped and opened its doors Isaac got out. The room was dark and the lights were sputtering off and on. There were a few bloodstains on the wall and the engineer noticed that someone had actually written a message in blood: cut off their limbs.

Isaac silently searched around for something he could use as a weapon. He was rewarded when he found a 211-V plasma cutter on the counter right below where the blood message was.

"_Shoot the limbs off of enemies for extra damage."_ Isaac was so sick of hear this weird computer voice in his head. It was driving him crazy, he wished he could switch it off somehow. He resolved to just ignore it.

Isaac heard a new voice. "Is someone there? Hello…"

Instead of answering back like a normal person would have, the engineer ran over to the door where he had heard the voice.

The door was locked, but Clarke saw the control panel off to the right and shot it with his new plasma cutter. Out of sheer dumb luck (the door could have just as easily stayed closed) the locked door opened.

Clarke was quick enough to see the person on the other side of the door be sliced to pieces by a monster that looked to be made of rotting flesh and blades warped from bone. Finished with its first victim, the horrendous abomination turned to the engineer.

Isaac aimed up and to the right and pulled the trigger. The shot connected with the creature's left arm, but it didn't come off. The engineer quickly fired another volley of shots, several of them missing the monster altogether. The creature's left arm was finally cut loose from the rest of its horrid body and fell to the floor. The monster stumbled for a second as if someone had given it a light punch, and then lunged for the human again.

Clarke's mind was frantic. The thing was still coming for him. He had taken off one of its limbs and it didn't even seem to care.

Isaac fired his plasma cutter again and again until nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. He thought he was a dead man, but then regained his senses long enough to realize the monster was finally lying dead on the floor.

He had used up all his ammo shooting the thing, so Isaac scoured the room for another tool to fight. The engineer found no other tools that he could use as weapons, but he did find some ammo for his plasma cutter when he stomped open some crates.

With his plasma cutter reloaded and ready to go, Isaac ventured into the hallway where the monster had come from. The place was a mess; there were suitcases and crates strewn all over the place. Amidst the clutter on the floor Isaac noticed what looked like an audio log. And a closer looked confirmed that it was in fact an audio log.

Isaac picked up and played the audio log lying on the floor before him.

"_This is Benson. Everybody listen up! They're using the vents! That's how they're getting about the ship! Stay away from…"_

"_Look out!"_

"_Get back! Get back!"_

The audio log cut out with several screams from the crewmembers and the monster that was killing them.

Isaac Clarke didn't know much about what was going on, but he knew now to stay away from air vents and aim for the monsters' limbs. It wasn't much to go on but it was better than nothing. Isaac had a feeling he'd need every advantage he could get if he was going to get out of here alive.

The engineer tried to get a hold of his shipmates but got no answer. During that brief moment when he was distracted and not paying attention to his surroundings, Isaac heard running footsteps and twirled around—only to see some unclear form dart from one doorway into another. Isaac waited with his weapon drawn, sure that whatever it was would come back out the doorway and try to attack him. The jumpy engineer stood there and waited for a good two minutes before deciding the thing that had scarred him was long gone.

Isaac went back to his random wandering and eventually stumbled upon a tram control terminal. He was just about to play around with the computer when the metal blinds covering the glass windows receded, revealing Hammond, Daniels and Chen on the opposite side of the tram tracks.

Kendra's face appeared right in front of Clarke as his RIG holographically projected the image of his crewmate. _"Isaac? Isaac! God, I can't believe he made it."_

The image adjusted a second and Clarke got a face full of Hammond. _"Isaac, we ran into more of them on the way over here. Are you okay?"_

The engineer merely nodded.

"_More what? What the hell are those things? Is that the crew?"_ Kendra asked.

"_Keep your voice down!"_ Hammond hissed. _"Whatever they are, they're not friendly! And half the doors on the ship are locked because of the quarantine. Now we have to get to the bridge."_

"_You're crazy, Hammond. You're going to get us all killed,"_ Kendra whined.

"_If you listen to me, I WILL get you out of here alive. Isaac, if I can get to the bridge, I should be able to access the personnel files. I can help you find Nicole but right now I need you to get back to the Kellion and prep it for launch. We'll find out what we can from the bridge and meet you there."_

"_You're out of your league, Hammond. This is suicide! We're going to die out here."_

"_Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted, Ms. Daniels, but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I am going to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?"_

"_Just get us out of here alive."_

The video feed cut out. Isaac noticed that Chen had been just as quiet as he was during the exchange.

Clarke turned around and started backtracking to the _Kellion_, hoping he didn't run across any of the monsters on his way. Chen, Hammond and Daniels boarded the tram and set out for the bridge.


	15. An Unexpected Encounter

**Chapter 15: An Unexpected Encounter**

Commander Karl Zako considered himself to be a competent individual, dangerous even. He had a good set of skills and was handy with a blaster. He wasn't the best in the Galaxy but he knew how to fight dirty when he had to and most importantly he knew how to survive a battle. But everything came crashing down on him since becoming stranded on the _Ishimura_. Zako realized something about himself; he was nearly useless on his own. All his life he had relied on the droid army. He relied on the strength of numbers. He relied on OOM-9 and Katen and all his friends. Karl Zako didn't amount to much on his own.

He was tired of being on his own. The human cyborg would have been thrilled to find someone who wasn't in the process of committing suicide right in front of him. Anyone: he hoped to find Yayap or Krunch of course since they were his allies. But he would have settled for a surviving member of the _Ishimura_'s crew or his quarian captors. Or even the damn xenomorph that didn't attack him earlier. Anyone would be better than being alone.

The cyborg still couldn't get a connection to the Separatist Droid Network. He couldn't even get anyone on his omni-tool. Everyone else might have all been killed for all Commander Zako knew. It sucked being on his own. He had gotten lost and separated in the dark bowels of Rupture Farms, chasing after that quarian. He would have bought it right there at the hands of the mysterious masked aliens with the cloaking technology if it had not been for that xenomorph that saved him. Then there was the brief but terrifying skirmish in the xenomorph hive. It had not been an ideal situation, but Zako wasn't alone, even wasn't even far from his own army. Now though, out in the middle of nowhere stranded on a ship where nothing seemed to work properly… he was screwed. He couldn't rely on the droid army to save him, not with that battle going back on at Oddworld. Zako wished he hadn't tried so hard to capture those quarians. If he had just given up and joined in fighting the clones, then he wouldn't be in this position now. At least with the Republic Zako knew what to do.

Despite the terror and the periods of painfully dreadful silence onboard the _Ishimura_, and the hundreds of things that ran through his mind—Zako found himself thinking of Gorman. Zako had treated Gorman poorly. He thought so little of the Colonial Marines officer. Now he seemed to be the pathetic one, not Gorman. Zako made a promise to himself that he would try to stop being such a pompous jerkass if he could just find someone.

Commander Zako wandered about the endless hallways and rooms of the _Ishimura_. He occasionally came across blood or corpses, or bloody corpses. He was lucky enough to avoid any further encounters with the necromorphs. But his luck would run out sooner or later. Zako needed a plan to find the others and get off the ship. He had nothing to go by since he had no idea where he was and he still couldn't pick anything up on the comm system. It was as if someone didn't want anyone to be able to talk to each other and was jamming all frequencies.

Commander Zako heard breathing. It was fast and labored and accompanied by faint crying. It could be a survivor scarred shitless, or a monster ready to rip his head off. There was the issue of if the monsters could or would cry. But for all Zako knew there was some necromorph variant that pretended to cry specifically to lure in unsuspecting prey. Zako had still failed to acquire a weapon, he was sure his luck had finally run out. He almost thought he heard faint voices as well.

_This is such a bad idea_, Zako thought to himself. _But if it's a fucking necromorph it probably knows I'm here already and is going to chase me anyway._

Zako was as quiet as he could be in his heavy armor as he approached the sounds. He slowly turned the corner and peered at where the soft sobs and voices were emanating from.

And he was completely caught off-guard. The room was dimly lit, but he could see well enough. What he saw was not some of the human survivors of the _Ishimura_, nor was it the infected space monsters. In fact, Zako was not sure what they were. His work for the droid army had taken him all over the Galaxy; he had seen many strange and interesting things in his lifetime, though nothing like this. For a second he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.

There were three quadrupeds before him. One had a bright aquamarine-colored coat while another was a brilliant cyan. The last one was white. A pair of huge amber eyes and a horn dominated the head of the aquamarine quadruped. They cyan one had cerise eyes and a dazzling multi-colored mane. The white quadruped had a blue mane, a horn and a pair of opaque purple-tinted shades. They were so cute that just looking at them could cause diabetes. Zako could easily tell the aquamarine creature was upset and the cyan and white ones were trying to console it. The creatures all froze when they saw Zako.

"What's this?" Zako knew he hadn't seen everything the Galaxy had to offer but these things were just bizarre. The creatures looked as if it couldn't possibly be real, it looked as if someone had ripped them right out of an old Earth cartoon.

"W-who a-are you?" the aquamarine quadruped asked in a shaky voice. She took a few steps back when Zako moved towards her. The cyan one stood her ground and glared at him with angry eyes. The one in shades didn't react for all the human could tell (aside from turning to look at him).

"You can talk?"

"Of course I can. Why would you think I couldn't?" the aquamarine quadruped's tone of voice instantly changed, now sounding more perturbed than scared.

"Back off!" The cyan quadruped threatened as Zako got closer.

The Separatist stopped in his tracks. He wasn't looking for a fight, though he was sure he could take all three of them if it came to that. He was taller than they were and none of them appeared to have any weapons. Granted since they walked on all fours, the human wasn't sure how they would even hold weapons.

"Hey, take it easy. I'm not here to fight."

"Where are we?" The cyan quadruped demanded, stomping a hoof on the floor.

"On a _planet cracker_-class ship known as the _Ishimura_." It was the only answer Zako could give. He didn't know _where_ on the _Ishimura_ he was.

"What?" The quadruped clearly didn't understand.

"Planet cracker… sounds like a good title for a song," the one in shades mumbled to herself.

"I don't know how I can be any clearer."

The aquamarine quadruped started circling around the Separatist officer, eyeing him up and down. The creature in shades also crept a little closer to get a better look at Zako. The pair had apparently suddenly decided that he was not a threat or at the very least he meant them no harm.

"Lyra! Vinyl! Get away from that thing!"

"Calm down, Rainbow. He's not attacking us." The one in shades spoke.

"Wait…a-are you… are you a human?" The aquamarine quadruped's amber eyes went wide.

"Yes…"

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" the aquamarine quadruped squealed. All of the creature's previous worries seem to have completely evaporated. "A real-live human! I knew you existed! I just knew it!" She released a huge serial killer-esque grin while hopping up and down. "Vinyl, Rainbow, look! It's an actual human! I told you they were real!"

"Dude, that's pretty awesome," the one in shades clicked her tongue. "Lyra was right. Looks like Octavia owes me twenty bits."

"What?" Despite being on a ghost ship filled with space monsters, Zako considered this moment the weirdest part of his day so far.

"Did you summon us here?"

"No…"

"What's with the armor? Are you a guard human? What are you guarding?"

"I'm a soldier."

"What are you soldiering?"

"Wha?"

The white and the cyan quadrupeds kept quiet as the aquamarine one bombarded Zako with her questions. The rainbow-haired one glared daggers at the human, just waiting for him to try something aggressive.

"Could you take off your helmet? I wanna see your face."

"No."

"Please? I've never seen a real-live human before."

"What?" It was one of the strangest statements Zako had ever heard before. "Humans are everywhere. Have you been living under a rock or something?"

"I have not been living under a rock. Why would I do that? Wait… are there advantages to living under rocks? Anyway… there aren't any humans where we're from. Please… I wanna see you. Please? Pleeeaaassse…"

"Fine." Zako didn't want to remove his helmet and expose himself to whatever was infecting the ship. But in all honesty he couldn't be sure his armored suit could protect him or if there was actually any infection to be protected against. He remembered the few survivors of the _Ishimura_ he had come across seemed fine (in that they weren't partial necromorphs). _In any case, I'm probably gonna die anyway_, Zako thought. _They aren't wearing suits and they're doing just fine._ From what he'd seen so far, it wasn't the air that had been killing people.

The human slowly lifted his helmet off, exposing his face.

The eyes of the two quadrupeds went wide and their mouths hung open. Zako assumed the white one also reacting but it was hard to tell with the shades on. The cyan quadruped's glare evaporated.

Zako could tell from their shared expression of shock that he was not what they were expecting. More than anything he knew it was his cybernetic eye. It did sort of make him look evil.

"Wow… nice eye. I didn't think humans had eyes like _that_." The cyan one spoke up first, momentarily forgetting to treat Zako with suspicion.

"Yeah, that's pretty wicked," the white one added.

"They usually don't."

"Your mane is so much shorter than I thought it would be." The aquamarine one spoke this time.

"Because I shave it…"

_I gotta get moving again, these things are gonna get me killed,_ Zako thought to himself.

The aquamarine quadruped regained enough composure to start a proper introduction. "I'm Lyra Heartstrings. But you can just call me Lyra. And these lovely mares here are Rainbow Dash." She motioned towards the cyan quadruped with the brilliant rainbow mane. Zako had to stop himself from laughing upon hearing Rainbow's name. He found it to be hilarious. 'Lyra Heartstrings' was funny too, but 'Rainbow Dash' was just too much. The Separatist hid his amusement perfectly, he really didn't want to piss off Rainbow; she seemed mean enough already.

"Hey." Rainbow was short and curt.

"And Vinyl Scratch." Lyra raised a hoof over towards the mare with the shades.

"Yo." Vinyl let a smile form on her face.

"What's your name?" Lyra asked.

"I am Commander Karl Zako of the Separatist Droid Army."

"Oooohhh. Commander, huh? What's that make you, like a captain or something? Oh, and what's a 'droid?'"

"Don't worry about it," Zako said. _Now they don't know what droids are? This keeps getting stranger and stranger._

"Oh, I'm not worried about it, Karl. I would just like to know."

"You can just call me Zako."

"Why? What's wrong with Karl? Or Karl Zako? Or Commander Karl Zako of the Separatist Droid Army?"

"Nothing. It's just everyone—even my close friends, call me by my last name… most of the time, anyway."

"Huh? Wha?"

"Zako is my surname. Karl is my given name. Nobody calls me Karl." The Separatist officer wasn't sure why he kept answering Lyra's questions. Some strange combination of the weirdness of it all, the sweet sound of her voice, and his own failing ability to concentrate had beckoned him to at least attempt to address every bothersome question she threw at him.

"Why?"

"I don't know. It's just the way it is."

Lyra didn't seem content with the answer. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes; she was as tired of Lyra's incessant questions as she was with Zako's inadequate answers. It was impressive to meet a human for sure, but Rainbow Dash was more concerned with where they were and how they had gotten there.

"I'm in the military. We're usually addressed by our last name if we have one."

"But _I'm_ not in the military. And I want to call you Karl! I like that name. Though Zako isn't bad either I guess…" she raised a hoof to her chin as if deep in thought, "and it rhymes with taco! Zakos… and tacos! Zako wants a taco! How many tacos will Zako eat?" Lyra did a little singsong.

"Have it your way," the human gave up. _She's never seen a human before yet she knows about Earth foods now?_

"What about a nickname? How about… Humie the Human!"

"Please don't…"

"Alright, Karl it is then!"

"What are you anyway?" Zako asked Lyra.

"I'm a unicorn pony, of course!"

"Unicorn…pony?" Zako vaguely remembered that unicorns were fictional animals from Earth lore, but he had never heard of a unicorn pony. Zako's knowledge of Earth lore had actually proven useful. Though from what he remembered, he thought unicorns were supposed to be taller. And the trio of ponies before him had heads that were much more rounded that what he thought they should have been. And their eyes were huge. All in all Zako thought Lyra Heartstrings, Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch looked rather humanoid. Understandable, there were countless humanoid aliens out in the Galaxy.

"Yep," Lyra grinned. "Have you ever met one before?"

"No. What about you, Rainbow Dash? You a unicorn pony too? You don't have a horn on your head like Lyra and Vinyl do."

"That's because I'm a pegasus pony." Rainbow started beating her wings and flew up to the human, meeting him at eye level.

"Gah!" Zako stepped back in surprise. "You can fly!"

"Duh. I thought the wings would'a gave that away."

"I didn't notice them before." Zako was honest. Karl only vaguely remembered what unicorns were; he drew a complete blank when it came to pegasi. Though apparently they were winged ponies.

"Look, Lyra, Rainbow, Vinyl, I need to get going."

"Why? Can't you stay and talk? You have some important soldiering to do? You're not going to abandon us are you? We don't know where we are…"

"No. Come on, let's go."

"Okay, where are we going? Why do we need to go?"

_Lyra's very trusting,_ Zako thought. "There are monsters nearby, we need to get away from them." He hoped his explanation was simple enough for her to understand without bombarding him with more questions.

"Oh… okay. Lead the way then."

"Wait a minute! Why should we trust you?" Rainbow Dash thrust a hoof in Zako's face as she hovered in front of him.

_Rainbow Dash… not so much…_ "Then don't follow me. See if I care. You're free to do whatever you want." Zako did care but he couldn't come up with a reason for Dash to trust him. He was having so much trouble concentrating. He didn't want to be alone but this was starting to take way too long. He was sure they'd be necromorph bait if they continued to stay in one place. Stationary prey was easy prey; it was better to keep moving.

"Awww… c'mon, Dash. Why can't we follow the human?" Lyra whined.

"If I was going to attack you, wouldn't I have done it already by now?" The human offered.

"Yeah, Dash. He makes a good point," Vinyl said.

"What if he's just luring us into a trap where other humans are waiting to get us… and… and… bake us into a pie!"

"Really, that's what you came up with? Why would I bake you into a pie?"

"So you could eat us!"

"Fine. Believe what you want. I'm leaving." Karl Zako started to walk past.

Lyra immediately started to follow. "C'mon, Rainbow."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. He seems cool." Vinyl started to follow after the human as well, leaving Rainbow to hover there on her own.

"Wait." Rainbow Dash hiccupped. "Don't leave me behind."

Commander Zako turned around and looked at the hovering pegasus pony. She was certainly more aggressive and wary than Lyra or Vinyl, but then Zako realized that it could have all been an act to appear tough. "I won't. Well… let's go."

"I'm watching you." Rainbow's brief moment of fear had dissolved and a level of mistrust had returned.

"There are worse things here than me."

_Great… this has turned into a fucking escort mission and I still don't have a weapon._ Commander Zako felt like his whole situation had been some cruel joke in a bad story written by a terrible author that needed to take a writing class. Still… it was better than being alone.

The human put his helmet back on and started walking again. Lyra easily kept pace with him on his right and Vinyl kept at his left. Rainbow hovered near the human from his left side, right over Vinyl Scratch.

"So… you three don't know where you are?"

"Yes. We already told you this, duh." Rainbow Dash rolled her large cerise eyes.

"And you don't know how you got here?"

"I thought maybe you did it," Lyra answered.

"Why would you think that?"

"So you could meet two awesome unicorns, of course!" Lyra beamed.

"_And_ a totally awesome pegasus."

"It wasn't me. I have no such powers…"

"Right. So… we don't know how we're here." Lyra's ears flattened against her head for a moment.

"We'll worry about that later. Right now we need to focus on getting out of here."

"What kind of monsters are around here anyway? Manticores? Timberwolves? Dragons?" Rainbow asked.

"Nothing like that." The only creature from the list Zako knew of were dragons. He had no idea what manticores or timberwolves were. "From what I've heard they're called necromorphs."

"Necromancers? I didn't think there were any of those left," Lyra said.

"Necro_morphs_. Not necromancers."

"Never heard of them."

"Neither have I, until today."

"Have any ideas on how we might get back home?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I don't know how you got here and I don't know where you're from. I have no idea how you can return home at this moment. What we can do is focus on leaving this ship and getting to safety."

Zako got an idea. _When I reestablish a connection with the network I can look up these unicorn and pegasus pony species. I can get some damn answers. Find out about their species. Maybe they have teleportation technology? No… that can't be. Only Oddworld has developed teleportation… and they can only travel short distances with it._

Zako noticed the three ponies were turning their heads and looking around a lot. From what he gleaned from the conversation so far, he didn't think they understood the full gravity of the situation yet.

"What are you all looking at?"

"This place," Vinyl answered, "never seen anything quite like it. Looks pretty cool."

"Looks kinda creepy to me," Rainbow gave her two cents. "Not a lot of room to move around…"

"I think it's neat!" Lyra beamed. "It smells though. What's that terrible smell?"

"Probably a necromorph."

"That's not funny, Karl," Rainbow said.

"I wasn't joking. There may be one nearby."

"Oh…"

"Come on, we just need to keep moving and we'll be fine…." Zako trailed off as all four of them caught sight of a necromorph approaching from down the hall.

"What the buck is that?" Rainbow asked.

"Necromorph! Get back!" Zako quickly looked around for something to grab with his kinesis module. All he saw was an empty sun cola can, it would have to do. He grabbed the empty soda can with kinesis and shot it off at the necromorph. It did nothing. _Why can't I ever find anything useful to throw?_

The necromorph charged, closing the gap between it and its prey in seconds. It slashed at the Separatist officer. He barely dodged and managed to punch the thing right in its disgusting chest. The necromorph was barely jarred by the blow and was quick to come after Zako again.

Lyra was terrified. _What in the sweet name of Celestia is this thing?_ The awful thing almost looked human itself. She was expecting something different. Vinyl was backed up quite a bit and Rainbow was caught thinking about what she should do. Normally Rainbow Dash would never back down from a brawl, but this monster was more than she expected, and the human had told them to stay back…

The necromorph managed to hit Zako, though it was only a glancing blow. His shields held and he hit the monster back with an equally fruitless attack.

Lyra knew if she didn't do something fast her new human friend (or at least she hoped he would be her new friend) was going to die. She didn't think she could gore the thing with her horn. That was the stupidest of stupid ideas to try. Instead she noticed a heavy metal-looking box on the floor nearby.

The top of the box started to glow green as the unicorn pulled its top off with her magic. She then sent the slab of steel soaring through the air at their attacker.

The necromorph was decapitated. Lyra was horrified with what she had done. She knew her awesome new human friend was in danger and that thing was clearly an evil monster…but she had never killed before.

Or at least for a few seconds Lyra thought she had killed it. The monster was still flailing around, slashing at the air even though its head was gone!

Vinyl hit it with a blast of magic from her horn and sent the headless necromorph sprawling backwards onto the floor. Still alive and apparently angry, the necromorph violently threw a tantrum. Its bladed hands made a terrible noise as they scraped against the metal floor.

Rainbow Dash had finally made up her mind, if her all her friends were going to fight, so would she. She was about to charge and try to finish the thing off when she felt a tug on her tail that stopped her mid-flight. She turned back to the human. "Let me go!"

"Stay away from it!" Zako let the pegasus go.

The necromorph finally started to get its bearing again and started to stand back up and wildly slash at the air again.

Lyra couldn't take it anymore. She turned around and ran.

"Lyra! Lyra, wait!" Vinyl took off after the other unicorn. Dash soon followed, her wings allowing her to catch up to the other two quickly. Rainbow wasn't one to run from a fight but considering their situation making sure her friends were okay was more important.

"Hey! Don't leave _me_!" Zako hurried after the three ponies, leaving the headless necromorph to continuously slash at empty air.

Zako was surprised at how fast the ponies were. He had expected Rainbow Dash to be fast, considering she had wings. But even the two unicorns were able to outrun him. He thought his longer legs would give him some sort of advantage but that clearly wasn't the case. Though the ponies might not usually be this fast, as they seemed to have pure fear pumping through their legs (or wings).

The human had nearly lost them when they finally stopped, allowing him to catch up.

Evidently, Lyra had tired herself out and stuffed herself into a corner. She started to cry as Vinyl and Rainbow held her.

"It's okay…" Vinyl tried to console her friend.

"No, it's not okay! That thing was horrible!"

"That's why we've got to get out of here." Zako said as he approached them. "There are more of those things out there. But we're not going to make it very far if we don't stick together."

The unicorn pony didn't stop crying.

Zako bent down to get closer to her eye level. He didn't have to bend all the way down or she would have ended up being taller.

"Lyra, I know it's difficult… but we've got to keep moving." He took off his helmet and looked her in the eyes. He didn't know what else to do.

"You won't abandon us, will you?" Lyra sniffed.

"No, Lyra. I won't abandon you guys. But we need to get moving."

"Okay… okay…" Lyra tried slowly breathing in and out, trying to calm herself.

Zako put his helmet back on and started began to bring himself back to his full height—but instead fell backwards on his ass. He groaned and rubbed the side of his neck.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay? Did that thing get you? Let me see." Lyra was immediately concerned for her soon to be new friend.

"I'm fine. Just hurt my neck a little back there. The necromorph didn't do any real damage."

"Don't lie to me." Lyra gave Zako a little glare.

"I'm not. I'll be fine." Zako slowly stood back up, making sure not to fall this time. He really was fine, the necromorph hadn't done any damage… but he wasn't feeling too good. He felt like he had a massive headache coming on, as if he needed any more problems.

"You better be, Karl. I'm not going to let the first human I meet get carved up into buttered toast."

"You know, you're a horrible soldier human, Zako," Dash said.

"Not my fault. I don't have a weapon on me right now. Anyway, you haven't encountered those before?"

"No. You're the first one we've seen since we got here," Vinyl said.

"Well, those things are all over the ship. So we better get moving and find a way out of here."

Lyra merely nodded her head while the other two ponies answered in an affirmative. Lyra had encountered monsters before, but nothing as horrible as that. The creature had looked human, it had a similar body type to Zako… but it was wrong somehow. It looked as if Discord had taken a normal nice, generic human and put him through a blender of nightmares to create some sort of sick zombie smoothie she would be forced to drink.

The small group started to move.

Much to Zako's relief, their trek was uneventful so far. They encountered no more necromorphs for the time being, though they did come across the occasional corpse or blood spatter. The Separatist officer was annoyed he still hadn't come across anything he could use as a weapon; he wasn't looking forward to another fistfight with a monster that had blades growing out of their hands. Though he remembered Lyra and Vinyl had used some sort of biotic powers in their previous fight, he would have to ask them about that soon to see just what they could do.

Lyra, Rainbow and Vinyl had been quiet since the necromorph encounter. It was clear to Zako that they were a little traumatized. Who wouldn't be?

Between the human's metal boots and the ponies' hooves, the lonely corridors were noticeably louder. Though his footsteps and their hoofsteps were distinct so Zako was sure he would be able to pick out the sounds of any approaching necromorphs. He just had to pay attention and listen for any footfalls that didn't sound like theirs. Lyra losing her lust for asking him questions sure made the task easier. Though if they survived this he was sure he would be drowned in a downpour of questions in the future.


	16. Course Correction

**Chapter 16:Course Correction**

The bridge of the _Ishimura_ was a mess. Once the necromorph attack had been repelled the bounty hunters and the quarians immediately went back to threatening each other again.

Alissa Vincent was getting fed up with all the shit. "Will you all calm the fuck down? We need to work together if we're going to get out of here alive."

The two bickering factions turned quiet for a moment. They were apparently willing to give her a chance to speak, though they were still leveling weapons at each other.

Before Vincent could utter another word, the sounds of footsteps echoed through the hallway that led to the bridge. Everyone fell silent and those that had weapons pointed them towards the doorway.

To everyone's relief, a trio of non-infected humans appeared. All were armed; two had rifles while the group's sole female had a pistol.

"Who the fuck are you?" Zaeed demanded of the newcomers.

Hammond, Daniels and Chen froze. They were half expecting to find the bridge abandoned and were certainly not expecting to see a small army with weapons pointed at them.

"Friends of yours?" Zaeed asked Vincent.

"Hopefully," the redhead said.

"I'm Chief Security Officer Zach Hammond of the _Kellion_. The CEC sent us to fix the communications blackout on the _Ishimura_."

"We have bigger problems than a communications blackout," First Officer White spoke up. White was technically now acting captain of the _Ishimura_, but preferred to keep quiet for the most part and let Vincent take over.

"Yeah. We _noticed_ that," Kendra Daniels snidely cut in.

"Your mission doesn't matter now," Vincent said, "all that matters now is getting off the _Ishimura_."

"What are we waiting for then?" Chen asked.

"There are a few… complications," Vincent started to explain. "The quarians told me their ship might be damaged. But now we have two other options for transportation. The bounty hunters… and you." Alissa pointed at Hammond's group.

"This is a CEC ship. What are quarians and bounty hunters doing here?" Hammond asked. "Someone needs to start at the beginning and explain all of this."

Vincent took it upon herself to explain the situation as best she understood it at that point. She spoke loud and clear enough for everyone on the bridge to hear. She didn't want to have to repeat any of this again. During her story, Vincent once again reiterated the secret that the quarians thought their ship to be damaged. Penn and Lena groaned, unhappy that the bounty hunters knew their little secret. No one but the bounty hunters yet knew that their ship was completely unflyable. No one was happy to hear from Vincent that a science officer named Dr. Kyne was intentionally trying to scuttle the _Ishimura_. Just like when Vincent first explained the situation to the quarians and Krunch, she once again offered her theory that the doctor was most likely dead at this point and they shouldn't worry about any further damage to the ship. Though just the threat of the _Ishimura_ falling apart drove the point further home that they needed to evacuate… and soon (as if the hostile aliens weren't encouragement enough).

When Vincent finally finished, everyone was quiet for a moment, processing all that they had learned.

"Who's the dumbfuck who sent a repair team instead of soldiers?" Krunch referred to Hammond's group. The slig paced back and forth, his mechanical legs making a constant whirring noise that were getting some of the others' nerves.

"The CEC, obviously," Lena snapped at the slig. She was still sore about how quickly he had sided with Zaeed and the droids against her and Penn.

"We had no idea that an unknown hostile alien force had infested the ship," Chen said in his group's defense.

"Doesn't matter," Second Officer Chic spoke up. "We have two ships we can escape on. Let's not waste any more time."

"That's not entire accurate," Chen said.

"Why?" Chic had a feeling he was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"Our shuttle was damaged as we made our way into the _Ishimura_'s hangar bay," Chen explained.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Zaeed cut in. "We have two damaged ships that may not even fly?"

"We still have yours, don't we?" Chic asked Zaeed.

"Correction: Our ship was rendered completely unflyable during our first encounter with the alien meatbags," the droid HK-47 spoke up.

"You've got to be kidding me," Chic stammered, "three separate groups came aboard this ship… and not a single one of you has a space-worthy vessel anymore?"

"Not entirely accurate," Hammond corrected, "we sent our engineer to check on the _Kellion_ and assess the damage. We still might be able to fly out of here."

"Engineer?" Penn turned his helmeted head to glare at Hammond. "As in one? You sent one person out there alone with those things? How do you know he's not dead by now?"

"Either way this goes…" Zaeed kept his rifle handy. He was still ready to blast Penn and Lena. "We need to make sure this planet cracker doesn't fall apart while we try and fix the other ships." The veteran mercenary turned to the bridge crew. "You people need to find out what's wrong with your ship. Now."

* * *

Isaac Clarke had just reached the _Kellion_ when he got a call from Hammond.

"_Isaac, we made it to the bridge. It's a nightmare up here. Some of the crew of the Ishimura have survived but there are also quarians and bounty hunters here that are ready to shoot each other."_ Clarke had no idea what to say to that, so he kept quiet.

"_The quarians' ship may be having engine problems and the bounty hunters' ship is too damaged to be repaired at all. We're really counting on you to get the Kellion up and running or we're all going to be stuck here."_

Still listening to Hammond yet never speaking, the engineer entered the damaged shuttle. Isaac reached the cockpit and activated the ship's diagnostics routine. Almost as soon as he did, one of the monsters with a tail instead of legs crawled over the viewport. The _Kellion_ suddenly caught fire, a fire that was spreading far too quickly, as if someone had tossed a Molotov cocktail into a toilet paper factory.

"Hostile life forms detected. Hull damage critical. Evacuate immediately." The VI warned the human.

Isaac ran for it, though he didn't have far to go before he was safely free of the burning shuttle. He was clear before the _Kellion_ fell away from the docking claws and crashed.

"Alert. Collision detected in the main hangar bay. Emergency crews have been notified." The impact of the shuttle hitting the deck knocked Isaac to the floor.

"_What the hell is happening down there? What happened to the shuttle?"_ Hammond demanded. Isaac didn't answer. It was obvious what had happened.

"_That was our ride home… it's the only way off this ship…"_

"_Kendra…"_

"_No, Hammond! This changes everything!"_

"_Just let me think! Maybe we can catch a ride with the quarians if their ship can be repaired."_

Isaac got up to his feet and grabbed his plasma cutter that he had dropped—and just in time as the tailed monster came charging at him. The engineer aimed for the creature's arms. One came off after three shots but the monster kept dragging itself across the floor with its remaining arm. Clarke fired another flurry of blasts that deprived the abomination of its head, and finally, its other arm. It stopped moving after that.

Safe for the moment, Isaac turned his attention back to the holographic projection coming from his RIG. Clarke saw that Hammond was talking with others he didn't recognize. After a quick conversation Isaac couldn't follow, as the static in the feed was temporarily bad, Hammond turned his attention back to Clarke.

"_Isaac, we need you to go to the tram and head for the engineering deck. Once there, wait for further instructions. We'll explain soon."_

* * *

Tali and Yayap had just finished killing a trio of slashers when they received a transmission on Tali's omni-tool.

"_Tali, it's Penn. Do you read me?"_

"Yeah, I read you."

"_What's the status of the Ebon Hawk?"_

"Unknown. The hangar is filled with those creatures. We couldn't get near your ship."

"_Great… All right, new plan. This ship is leaking fuel. We need you to go to the engineering deck and try to fix the problem. There are also a few new developments, but we can fill you in on those later. For right now, all you need to know is that you will be meeting up with a human engineer named Isaac Clarke when you reach the engineering deck. He will help you out."_

"Understood." The omni-tool fell silent.

"To the tram, then?" Yayap asked.

"Yeah."

The pair started off in the direction of the tram station. They were wary as they went, they were leaving behind a large group of the monsters in the hangar bay, but that didn't mean that there weren't others lurking in the shadows waiting to take a bite out of them.

"They're sending us on another errand." Yayap felt confident enough to break the silence.

"And?"

"I have a feeling after we fix the engine…"

"After _I_ fix the engine. Unless you know your way around a starship?"

"Fine. After _you_ fix the engine. As I was saying… I have a feeling after this we're going to get another call to run some other fucking errand for them."

"Would you rather the engines die and we crash into the planet?"

"No. I just don't see why your friends can't get off their lazy asses and come help us out."

They made it to the tram without incident. It took a few minutes of waiting while they called the tram to the station and during that time they were set upon by another of the slashers. They were able to kill it easily enough. The thing announced its presence with a screeching roar that alerted the quarian and the unggoy to its location, not the smartest thing to do.

When the tram did arrive they quickly boarded and set a course for the engineering deck. It was located all the way in the rear of the ship so they were in for a lengthy ride.

The tram ride passed without conversation. Tali was lost in her own thoughts about whatever new updates Penn had neglected to tell her. Yayap was busy jerking his head around, just waiting for one of the creatures to burst forth into the tramcar. The tram was moving fast, and one might logically think (as Krunch had in chapter twelve) that the creatures wouldn't be able to attack it as it moved at such a high speed. But ever the pessimist, Yayap considered it entirely possible and was _expecting_ an assault on the tram. What made it worse was that the tram was going so fast Yayap would not be able to smell any opponents in time if they did somehow latch onto the tram and force their way inside.

Yayap's fears turned out to be just that, fears. The tram made it all the way to the engineering deck without incident. The pair exited and explored around the lounge/tram station. The human they were supposed to meet wasn't here yet.

Tali and Yayap milled about the engineering deck's lounge, waiting for the engineer Isaac Clarke to arrive. They had broken into a few crates lying around and were rewarded with some credits and ammo. They didn't find any ammo for the weapons they had but they took it anyway. Everything had been quiet; no necromorphs had attacked for quite some time.

The _Ishimura_ had stunk to high hell for most of their journey so far, though now Yayap couldn't get a whiff of rotting flesh and moldy cheese. The creatures weren't nearby. He surmised they were safe, for the moment.

"You have any military training?" Yayap asked.

"Not formally, but I have a lot of combat experience."

"It shows. You're hardly professional, but most people would have died or broken down by now."

"You could stand to improve some yourself."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Whenever soldiers wear jet-black armor, that usually means they like playing pretend like they're elite badasses. Shouldn't you have wiped out half the ship by now?"

"I am special ops, actually. And I'm doing my best here. I only have so much ammo for my needler and I have no other weapons. I'd rather hold off before having to resort to beating these things to death with my bare hands."

Yayap found himself wondering if he really could kill the creatures barehanded. The unggoy knew he could tear regular humans to pieces just fine and the creatures seemed to be infected humans. But they seemed much tougher, brushing off shotgun blasts as a minor annoyance. Yet their limbs came off easily enough if you focused on them. Yayap decided he would try and rip out their limbs if it ever came down to melee combat.

The tram finally pulled in and the human engineer got off. The human was completely encased in his suit, and he reminded Yayap of Tali in the sense that neither of them showed any skin.

"You Isaac Clarke?" Yayap asked.

The human nodded. A video feed then suddenly projected out from the human's RIG.

"_Isaac, it's Hammond. I take it you've found your new partners. We've got two problems, and we're working on borrowed time here. First, there is no fuel in the engines. Second, the gravity centrifuge is offline, which means there are a couple trillion tons of rock pulling it down. I need you three to get that centrifuge operational. Refuel the main engine and fire it up, so we can stabilize the ship's orbit."_

With Hammond's orders given, the feed cut out. Tali and Yayap both found it odd that Isaac hadn't said a single word, not even a confirmation that he understood the orders just given to him. They quickly shrugged it off; there were more important things to worry about besides Clarke's unwillingness to speak.

"I'm Yayap. This is Tali." The unggoy unceremoniously introduced himself and his companion to the human. "She claims she's good with ships." Yayap turned to the quarian mechanic. "Oh by the way, nice job conforming to stereotypes there, Tali. A quarian who's good with ships, who'da thought? I never hear about any biotic quarians."

"Same to you, Mister Separatist Soldier. From what I hear, it's a requirement for your species to serve in the droid army. And I've never heard of a biotic unggoy."

"Har har har. Laugh it up, Tali." Yayap turned back to Clarke. "Any questions?"

Isaac shook his head in the negative.

"Right. Let's go then before the space zombies show up and eat us for standing around too long talking like a bunch of idiots." Yayap beckoned his two companions towards the entryway to the hall.

It was a very short walk and a turn to the right and they found themselves at the control room for the engineering deck. Weapons ready, they explored for a few seconds.

There was a store kiosk, a save station, a couple of sun cola vending machines, a few lockers, a dead body in one of the control room chairs, and an audio log lying in the middle of the floor.

"_Isaac…"_ Clarke heard ominous whispers call his name. It sounded like they were coming from some faraway place yet also sounded like they came from in his own head at the same time. He had started to hear muddled whispers before but he clearly heard his name this time. The human didn't bother to mention this to either the quarian or the unggoy.

Once it was certain the room was clear of hostiles, Yayap went over and played the audio log before doing anything else.

"_Personal log… acting Chief Engineer Jacob Temple. It's been two days since they pulled the planet open… since the captain died. The panic, the riots… they were nothing compared with what came after. Our friends, our co-workers started coming back… changed… coming back to kill us, drag us away. Rucker disappeared this morning, and I have to assume he's dead. My crew… they're starting to crack. I'm trying to keep an eye on them, but right now I have bigger problems. We're hemorrhaging fuel, and the primary engine is laboring. Danvers and I are going to try to reach the fuel depot to see if we can fix it… Temple out."_

"I hope you two can fix this problem," Yayap said, "I'm better at destruction than repair."

"I'm sure between the two of us, we can handle it," Tali said. Isaac merely nodded in agreement.

"We found some ammo earlier." Yayap turned to Clarke. "Can you use it for… whatever it is you have there?"

"Looks like a plasma cutter," Tali observed.

Isaac looked at the ammo the other two presented before him and shook his head back and forth.

"Oh well." Yayap shrugged.

"We have no use for it either," Tali added.

"Sell it at the store!" Yayap beamed. The unggoy took the ammo and sold it all at the automated kiosk.

"Where's my cut?" Tali asked when Yayap was done.

"I'll just hold onto the credits for the time being. If you two are gonna have to fix the engines, then the least I can do is hold onto the money."

"So heroic…" Tali put her hands on her hips.

"Yes I am. You'll all soon be grateful for the Bank of Yayap. You'll find my interest rats to be very reasonable…"

Isaac ignored the cheekiness of his new partners. He wasn't sure how they could joke around so much, unless that was how they chose to handle the stress of their very serious situation.

Clarke went up to the store kiosk himself and cycled through what was available. He stopped searching when he came across a new RIG in the list of items. It was an advanced hazard engineer RIG: elite class and it was much better than the standard engineer RIG Isaac currently wore. Another peculiar thing that caught the engineer's attention was the fact that the suit's price was listed as zero credits. Clarke assumed it must have been some sort of error in the automated system. He was of course, going to take advantage of it.

Isaac selected the new RIG and got into the store. This sudden movement caught the attention of Yayap and Tali, as they watched the store consume Isaac like some sort of metal mouth. A flash of light ran vertically ran down the center of the store's closed doors for a moment before releasing an Isaac Clarke equipped with a white RIG.

As soon as Isaac took his first step out of the store with his new suit the ominous whispers came back: _"So, you pre-ordered the xbox version of the game…"_

"How the fuck did that store change your suit like that?" Yayap asked. The unggoy immediately realized he should have asked Tali this. It wasn't likely Isaac would actually say anything.

"I have no idea," Tali answered. She also thought Clarke wasn't going to verbally reply and responded to Yayap's question herself (even though she had no answer).

"What's this thing?" Yayap pawed at the save station.

"Dunno," Tali said, "don't mess with it. You're better at destruction than repair and we don't need anything else breaking on this ship."

They raided the few lockers and sold their contents before heading out to the door that indicated the way towards the engineering deck's machine shop.

They headed down a ramp, Tali going first with her shotgun up and ready to go. Yayap with second and Isaac trailed behind. When they got to the bottom of the ramp they turned into a room filled with uniforms hanging from the ceiling. The lighting was poor. It looked to be a bad place where the monsters could easily hide and ambush them.

As they kept searching about the room, they found it to be empty of enemies but rich in items. They open up two lockers and stole their contents before finding another audio log.

Yayap started the audio log and was immediately treated to a cacophony of screaming.

"_What the hell is going on here? Danvers!"_

"_It's, it's Henderson… he's crazy! Pulling his own… teeth out!"_

"_Henderson! For god's sake!"_

They could hear what was obviously Henderson, going crazy before there was a sudden banging sound followed by a thud.

"_Oh, god. Is he dead?"_

"_Relax, he's alive. But he did hit that door pretty hard."_

"_Man… why would he do something like that? I don't get it."_

The audio log ended. Yayap downloaded it to his omni-tool. The violet glow bounced off the unggoy and his two companions. They turned and backed out of the room.

The trio came to a complete stop when they saw a supposedly dead slasher sprawled out on the floor right in the doorway to the machine shop.

"Remember last time? These things like to play dead," Yayap said.

"Shoot it now."

"No. You go first."

"What? You scared, Mr. Special Ops?"

"No. I only have so much ammo for this thing. And my needles are too valuable to be wasted if this thing turns out to actually be dead."

"Nice excuse."

"Then give me your shotgun and I will go first."

"Give me your gun and I'll give you the shotgun."

"No deal. I'll hold onto my needler, thank you very much."

"Then no shotgun for you."

"So you go first then. Isaac, you get up here with her, with that plasma cutter of yours."

"Fine. You win, you little coward," Tali gave up. Isaac took position on Tali's right-hand side.

Tali and Isaac slowly inched closer to the corpse and Tali aimed her shotgun to test fire it into the body—just as the slasher reared up and screamed. Tali swung her shotgun up and left while Isaac aimed to the right. The slasher lost both of its arms instantly. Still not dead and very angry, the armless slasher was about to charge when Isaac took its head off. After that, the torso and legs gave up and the monster fell back to the floor.

With the slasher dead (for real this time) the trio wandered into the machine shop and looked around. Various parts, pieces, tools, and spatters of blood were strewn about the area. At the far end of a room was a workbench.

Somehow Isaac managed to find a kinesis module and a power node in all the mess. He took the two items over to the workbench while his allies continued to poke around. Yayap found a text log and read it while the human worked on affixing the kinesis module to his left arm. Once the module was securely attached Isaac then proceeded to upgrade his plasma cutter with the power node he found, increasing the tool's damage output.

Done with his work, Isaac looked over and saw his allies waiting for him by the doors. He hurried over to them and Tali hit the circular touch screen to open the door to the refueling chambers.

Their feet tread upon a grate walkway now, allowing them to see below them. They were rewarded seeing one of the creatures, the ones with the tail, crawl across the bottom of the grate. Isaac fired a shot with his plasma cutter, but the thing got away.

The small squad started to drift apart from each other as they started to explore the miniature labyrinth that was the refueling chambers. There were plenty of lockers to open and crates to stomp apart. Yayap and Tali were continually perplexed as to why there was so much money just lying around the ship.

Two slashers eventually came out to greet them, chasing after Isaac. Yayap put his needler to work and burst the two monsters like balloons.

Yayap commented when he was sure Isaac was out of earshot. "Man, that guy runs like he took a dump in his suit." Considering the situation, the human engineer may have well done that.

Tali couldn't help but let out a sharp laugh. It was a mean remark, but also very true. Isaac Clarke had a peculiar gait to his run that suggested he was carrying a load in his pants.

Isaac's cowardice had rewarded him; he had reached a gondola. The other two hustled to catch up to the human.

They had one slight problem, the holographic interface read: _Gondola. Malfunction! Kinesis required._

It was only a slight problem as Isaac now had ownership of a kinesis module thanks to his rummaging around the machine shop. The human raised his left hand up and activated the module, using kinesis to bring over the gondola.

The trio boarded and Tali clicked on the holographic interface, hoping that the gondola would work properly. To their good fortune, it did. The gondola wheezed and started sliding over to the opposite side of the refueling chambers.

Yayap noticed it had gotten notably warmer since the gondola started moving. He had no idea if his two fully suited companions were able to notice the change. Huge plumes of steam rose up from beneath them and the unggoy wondered what was causing it. The artificial fog utterly ruined his long-range vision, but not the unggoy's sense of smell. Not that Yayap even needed that to know they had company waiting on the other side. The trio heard the telltale signs of grunts and groans coming from the nightmarish mouths of the alien creatures.

A small cluster of the monsters was converging at the other end, just waiting for the gondola to bring them their prey. But in this situation, it was Yayap who was the predator. The distance between them was closing, but the special ops unggoy had plenty of time to fire off enough needler rounds to kill all of the slashers that waited for the gondola to dock.

"Maybe they are stupid," Yayap said as the gondola docked and they got off. "They didn't even try to flee after I started slaughtering them."

As they went on they find another audio log. Yayap, being the curious unggoy that he was, just had to play the log right then and there.

"_Never should have let him live. Never should have let him live."_

"_Shut it, Danvers! Shut it! Engineering log. Temple reporting. Someone has shut off the fuel lines to the primary engine and damaged the valves in the process. They need to be repaired before I can re-open them, but we're running out of time. With the engine offline, orbit decay will begin in less than ten hours. I just can't understand who would do this. If it's one of those crazy Unitologist bastards, I'll break their neck!"_

"_Henderson said they were coming. We never should have let him live."_

"_Shut up, Danvers and help me with the tools. Temple out."_

After listening to the audio log they then went left and up a ramp. A few turns later and they were finally where they needed to be. They had found one engine refueling switches. Isaac used kinesis on the mechanism to move the switch to the down position.

Searching around some more they realized they must have missed the first refueling switch back on the other side and they started to backtrack to the gondola.

On the way back a pair of babies blocked them. At first Tali thought they were some of those little Earth dogs and she had almost stopped Yayap from shooting at them but she quickly realized her mistake when she heard their horrible death screams.

"Keelah! Infected infants?"

"Looks that way. Don't know why they have little babies crawling around on a mining ship though. Earthers are weird."

They made it back to the gondola without further incident and rode it again. Yayap once more had the displeasure of being overly heated as they lazily cut through the miasma of steam. They registered a shriek, noting that the sound was rapidly approaching them. They didn't see it until it was upon the side of the gondola. One of the legless, tailed creatures had leapt from some unseen location hidden in steam and shadows.

The creature was on the side of the guard railing, trying to pull itself in with the passengers. Yayap quickly flipped his needler upside down and hit the thing in the wrist with the top of the pink needles that jutted from the gun. Yayap was rewarded with a paroxysm from the monster. Two more brutal slashes with the pointy side of the needler and Yayap had cut the thing's hand off, though it still held on with its other slimy grabber. Pumped on adrenaline, Yayap was able to slice off the remaining hand in a single blow, prompting the tailed fiend to plummet into the foggy depths of the steam below.

No further monsters were waiting to greet them on the other side this time when the gondola docked. The small squad continued up a ramp on their right. Tali opened up a wall cabinet and to Yayap's surprise, she gave him the credits she had found. The unggoy was only joking when he'd said he would hold onto the money for the group.

"Who leaves hundreds of credits in an unlocked wall cabinet?" Yayap asked.

"The crew of this ship," Tali answered with a light giggle.

They kept going right and found the second refueling level. Isaac again used kinesis to pull it down until it locked into position.

"Refueling sequence activated," the ship's VI informed announced.

Isaac's RIG spat out another hologram of Hammond. _"Isaac, it's Hammond. Whatever you guys did, it's working! I have a fuel reading. It's only a quarter full, but that's enough to restore orbit once you bring the engines online."_ Tali was slightly annoyed. Isaac's RIG would suddenly sputter alive with messages from the human named Hammond, yet there was never any warning when they would happen. He was almost as good as jump scares as the aliens were.

The group continued through the last unexplored section of the refueling area. They were soon met by a swarm of tiny little pieces of living flesh. _What the fuck is this crazy shit? _Yayap thought was he back-stepped away. The creatures were so incredibly small that Yayap decided he would not waste any needles on them, waiting for Isaac and Tali to kill the small swarm of whatever they were.

It didn't take much to kill the tiny things. One blast from Tali's shotgun killed half of them. Isaac fired a few times and only managed to hit one. Tali fired again and obliterated the rest.

Yayap was starting to find the whole process of survival to be tedious. The parasitic aliens that infested the _Ishimura_ were terrifying to be sure, but they were just so similar to the Flood that he had fought in the past. From what the unggoy could tell, Tali was faring good as well and wondered why. Yayap had experienced the Flood in his past and wondered what Tali faced that hardened her against these new parasitic aliens. It was clear Isaac wasn't much of a fighter; his aiming wasn't all that great. It was hard to know the engineer's state of mind as he was completely encased in his RIG and never uttered a word.

They took a new door and found a shortcut back to the engineering control room.

As they neared the control room they could see a new version of the aliens through the glass window. It was bat-like and looked to have leathery wings. A long proboscis was at the head of the new creature and it shot forward and stabbed the head of the human corpse that lay in one of the chairs. Isaac, Tali and Yayap watched the scene before them with mixed emotions of curiosity and horror as the winged creature transformed the corpse into a slasher in mere seconds.

"So that's how they do it," Yayap said, "not too terribly different than the Flood."

"Gross."

"Come on, let's go kill them." The unggoy started to move forward.

"You've become so casual about death and dismemberment."

"I wasn't before?"

Tali went through the door first, blasting the slasher back with her shotgun as Yayap filled the winged beast full of pink needles until it popped. Isaac helped Tali kill the slasher by taking out its legs.

In moments the control room was clear of the necromorphs.

Isaac played around at the store again as Yayap took one more look around to make sure they had killed everything. After a minute of rest they took the elevator down to the centrifuge.

When they got off the elevator the hallway that was their passage towards their next objective was much cleaner than their previous environment had been.

It was a short and effortless walk before they reached the decontamination chamber. The light fixtures gave off a faint orange glow that made the area look especially foreboding.

Shuffling through some of the lockers lined up again the wall, Yayap found another audio log.

"_This is Temple. Now the centrifuge is offline! We've got four trillion tons of rock hanging off our ass and without that centrifuge to balance the ship; the gravity tethers will pull us straight down to the colony! I'm heading in there now to see if I can fix it."_

"Man, this Temple guy does everything halfway. We have to keep coming in and finishing everything he started," Yayap noted.

Isaac was quick to enter the decontamination chamber; Yayap figured the human was on edge and just wanted to get the whole thing over with. The unggoy and quarian quickly followed in and Isaac pressed a button on the interface console.

"Decontamination sequence activated. Please stand by," the VI instructed.

"Stand by? Stand by for what? The aliens to break in here?" Yayap was really getting fed up with the ship's computer.

As if the cosmic forces of the universe were giving a response to the unggoy's snarky remark, the trio could see several slashers just outside the gated windows of the chamber, one was poking its bladed hands uselessly at the window while two others were scurrying about trying to find a way in. Eventually they all disappeared into vents in the walls and ceiling. They learned that the slashers had an impressive vertical leap was one went straight up into a ceiling vent.

The decompression chamber went dark, but the trio of survivors produced plenty of light on their own. Green light seeped out from the horizontal slits in Isaac's faceplate while Tali's provided a soft lavender glow. A combination of blue and purple lights came off of Yayap's mask and combat harness.

As was expected, a slasher burst forth from one of the air vents in the decontamination chamber. Yayap hit it with a burst from his needler and sent it back to the depths of hell with a super-combine explosion. Another slasher came in and Yayap went to repeat the procedure but instead of a steady stream of pink death, the weapon only spat out three needles. Yayap had finally run out of ammo for his needler.

"Awe fuck! I'm out of ammo!" The three pink needles were still imbedded in the slasher, but weren't enough to kill it. They eventually shattered into nothingness as the slasher took a few steps closer. Isaac killed it with his plasma cutter as Tali activated her combat drone.

"Leaper!" Yayap said.

"What?" Tali didn't know what he was talking about.

"The ones with the tail! Over there!"

The combat drone had gone over to where Yayap had pointed and stunned the monster with its taser. Tali killed it with her shotgun.

"Decontamination sequence complete. Thank you for your patience."

"Yes, well my patience is starting to run thin," Yayap spoke to the VI.

They exited the decontamination room and raided a few lockers before proceeding through a door on their left.

"Hey Isaac, my needler is out of ammo. Gimme that plasma cutter."

"Greedy much?" Tali said.

"Hey, I have military training. It would be stupid for me not to have a gun."

"That's actually a tool…"

"Semantics."

The human wordlessly handed over his cutter to the unggoy.

"Hold onto this for me," Yayap thrust his empty needler towards Tali.

"Why should I hold _your_ empty gun?"

"I've noticed all those hidden pockets on your suit. You've been stuffing items in them since we came aboard this miserable ship. And in case you haven't noticed, my combat harness doesn't come with a ton of pockets."

"I might just keep this." Tali took the empty weapon and stowed it on her person.

"We'll see about that."

The trio found themselves walking through a long hallway and noticed a large hole in the wall. Tali didn't want to know what had created that.

"Leaper?" Tali finally asked, remembering what Yayap had called the monster with the tail where its legs should have been.

"Yeah, those things like to jump around it looks like."

"Why do you keep giving them nicknames?"

"So when I call somethin' out, everyone knows what to expect. The aliens have different types with different abilities."

"Their abilities aren't that different. They mostly just try to make us dead."

"Not that infector we saw earlier." Yayap recalled what they had witnessed in the control room. "Those ones with the wings and the stabby things convert corpses to make more of the other kinds."

"Well, the others just seem to be looking to make more corpses to infect."

"True. That we've seen so far. Who knows what other horrible things they may try to do?"

"I'd rather not think about it."

They kept going until they reached the centrifuge access door. Unlike most doors on the _Ishimura_, this one was large and circular. They went through the airlock.

"Entering zero-gravity."

"Fuck." Yayap could feel himself slowly lift off the ground.

Tali and Isaac grabbed the unggoy before he floated off and dragged him back to the previous room where they had gravity.

"No fair," Yayap whined. Isaac and Tali could magnetize their boots but Yayap had been walking around in his bare feet. "Looks like you'll need this." The unggoy gave Clarke his plasma cutter back.

"Here." Tali gave Yayap her M-3 predator pistol. "Try not to die till we come back."

"I'll try not to die even after you come back."

Tali and Isaac went back into the centrifuge chamber without Yayap.

The two engineers had to kill a pair of leapers, as Yayap liked to call them, before they set about their work.

Isaac used kinesis on the generator clutch but it bounced out of the socket. Tali used stasis on the spinning end of the clutch and then Isaac was able to get the clutch into the socket with kinesis.

"Generator module attached," the ship's VI announced.

The engineering duo repeated the process on the other side of the generator.

"Generator module attached. Central power restored."

The pair used a series of zero-g jumps to get to the console on the walkway above. Isaac pressed a series of buttons and activated the centrifuge.

"Centrifuge activated. Reestablishing balance with planetary cargo. Gravity restored." Tali was glad neither of them was donking around on the ceiling when the gravity had been restored.

"Entering vacuum." _Fuck_, Tali thought. Now it was a race to leave the centrifuge before they suffocated. Tali and Isaac were lucky they were both wearing airtight suits. They went down a nearby elevator.

"_You're all doing great! Centrifuge and gyros are both a hundred percent and stabilized. Now get out of there and focus on the engine. I don't know how much time we have left."_ Hammond cut out as abruptly as he his audio came in.

The centrifuge was spinning and the two engineers had to wait as it passed before running to the alcoves. Tali was a faster runner but Isaac had enough motivation not to become red paste that he was hasty enough to keep up with her.

Reaching the final alcove they took another elevator and left the way they came.

Yayap was waiting for them right where they had left him.

"Miss me?" Tali asked.

"You have no idea. There wasn't a second that went by that I didn't think of that beautiful bucket head of yours."

"You sure know how to make a girl feel-" the playful banter died when something huge had sprang out from around the corner and grabbed Tali's ankle. It lifted her into the air and slammed her back down to the floor. Tali dropped her shotgun, stunned from the brutal impact.

The huge tentacle started to drag Tali away. Yayap fired his pistol and Isaac followed up with his plasma cutter, but the tentacle didn't let go. The unggoy noticed several large yellow pustules on the tentacle, similar to the growth on the tripod creature he saw in the hangar bay.

Yayap abandoned the pistol and grabbed Tali's shotgun. He aimed at the yellow pustule. After two successive blasts the yellow growth exploded and what was left of the tentacle receded back into its hole without its quarian victim.

Tali needed a moment to catch her breath. Yayap handed over her shotgun and went to retrieve the pistol he had dropped.

"Thanks, Yayap."

"I told you I'd miss that beautiful bucket head of yours. I'd hate to see you go face-to-face with whatever was on the opposite end of that tentacle."

They started to go back and once again saw the hole in the wall. "Well, we know what made that now…" Yayap said.

The group backtracked all the way back to the control room. Isaac purchased more ammo for his plasma cutter at the store before they went through another door, the one that would lead them towards the engine room. They passed through a series of hallways until they reached a huge multi-floor room covered in organic material.

"Looks like someone lost their lunch all over the walls." Tali looked around.

"They lost more than that. Look." Yayap pointed to a shadowy corner.

A closer inspection revealed a human torso affixed to the vomit-covered wall.

Isaac shined his plasma cutter's flashlight on the being. It started to moan in pain when hit with the artificial light.

"By the Rings of the False Prophets! He's still alive!"

The upper part of the 'human' was relatively intact save for the fact that it was missing one of its eyes and looked like something had ripped most of the skin from its face. However, waist-down the 'human' was split open with its bloody entrails hanging loose.

Isaac took the light away and the wrenched creature stopped crying out in pain. The jerkass human then brought the light up again and it started to wail once more.

"This one isn't like the others." Yayap cocked his head to the side, wondering if the poor creature retained anything of its former self. "Hey, can you understand us?"

The pitiful creature merely moaned what sounded like the word 'help.'

"We should put it out of its misery," Tali said.

"It's not attacking, why waste the ammo?"

"Because it's the right thing to do."

"We'll need that ammo against the ones that are _trying_ to kill us."

Tali raised her shotgun and fired before Yayap could continue their argument. To her horror, the quarian found she had to shoot it two more times before it finally fell silent.

"Are you done?" The unggoy turned and started to explore the rooms on the level. "Fucking waste of ammo."

One of the rooms had a few of a little mobile pieces of flesh. Yayap was thankful that the pitiful pistol Tali had let him borrow was a least able to kill them. After the short fight, the special ops unggoy had taken to calling the little stripes of flesh swarmers.

With the room clear of enemies Yayap found an audio log and played it.

"_This is Temple. Screw the engine. I can't restart it by myself, and with all the other shit going on, it's obvious this is sabotage. I'm heading for the bridge and then I need to find Elizabeth. I've got to get her off this ship, it's not safe."_

"I wonder if Temple is alive or dead right now?" Yayap turned and left the room.

"He could be one of those _things_."

"In which case death would be preferable."

They checked another room and found a text log on the same floor.

_ENGINEERING LOG_

_DANVERS, C. (QMED)_

_Re: Organic growth in engineering (Update)_

_The unidentified growth seen in other parts of the ship has now reached engineering. I don't know what the hell this stuff is—looks like someone threw up their guts all over the walls—but it's spreading faster than we can cut it up, which is pretty disgusting in itself._

_It's already in the engine spoke and if we can't find a way to stop it soon, it'll hit the main chamber by the day after tomorrow. I hope the docs are looking into it, because it's way beyond me._

The organic matter vaguely reminded Yayap and Tali of the black webbing that covered surfaces in the xenomorph hive in Rupture Farms. Yayap thought the material covering parts of the _Ishimura_ was worse; the xenomorph webbing didn't smell horrible like this stuff did. He voiced his opinion to Tali as they rode the elevators to the bottom floor or the room.

There was another of the living human torsos stuck on the wall again and just like last time Tali had to kill it.

The door to the engine room was going crazy, constantly opening and closing. A slasher appeared on the opposite side and charged at them, only to get sheared in half by the door.

"I'm really starting to think these things aren't as smart as I first feared."

"What gave it away?" Tali used her stasis module on the malfunctioning door, freezing its movement to a slow crawl.

"Their habit of killing themselves. They seem to just blindly charge at anything they view as prey." Yayap said as the trio ran past the door.

They had a short trip through a hall covered in swarmers and took a left turn before they were met by the large door leading to the engine room.

"Ready?" Tali asked.

"Ready." Yayap answered. Isaac silently nodded.

Tali hit the glowing blue touch screen interface and the large doors slid open—revealing a horde of necromorphs lurking around the engine room. One of them was dragging a corpse across the floor with one of its claws. It was a peculiar and horrifying sight, they had never gotten the drop on the creatures before and it was interesting to see them in a setting where they were not immediately trying to kill someone. Yayap had viewed them when he was invisible in the hangar but the experience of seeing the monsters without them attacking was new for Tali and Isaac.

The quarian set out her combat drone. Yayap was a little jealous; he didn't have a combat drone of his own to do his bidding.

The fighting was quick but intense. Yayap found he wasn't much help with the puny pistol he had. Three slashers attacked and Tali killed one while Isaac stopped the other two.

It looked like it was all clear when another slasher appeared. This one was much fatter than the others and had a sickening yellow pigmentation. Everyone fired into the creature's large gut. It was such an easy target no one could resist. The overweight slasher fell backwards, its stomach ripping open as a dozen little swarmers crawled out. Yayap was actually happy to see them as he finally had something his pistol could kill.

When the last of the swarmers was dealt with Isaac went over to the control panel as Tali and Yayap stood watch for more enemies.

"Ignition sequence initiated. Please stand by," the VI instructed.

"Tali, your pistol sucks. Clarke, gimme your plasma cutter." Yayap traded the pistol for the human's weaponized tool.

Yayap had made the switch just in time as a quartet of slashers and a single leaper attacked under the cover of the sounds of the engines warming up. It was now Isaac's turn to be useless with the M-3 predator pistol.

"Engines ready," the VI alerted them.

"Suck on that!" Yayap killed the slashers in quick secession. Tali finished off the leaper.

Clarke pressed another button on the console. "Engines firing," the VI declared.

The engines roaring to life made the noise in the engine room unbearable. Yayap ushered the other two out quickly before any more necromorphs could attack under the cover of the dreadful racket. They left through the door they came in and kept going straight through the hallway.

Hammond popped out of Isaac's RIG again._ "It's working! We're online and functional! Finally some good news. Get a tram to the bridge."_

Kendra cut in. Isaac recognized her but his two companions didn't. _"Wait, wait! The ship's asteroid defense system is offline. On the way up, the ship's going to pass through a debris field thrown up from the planet crack… We'll be ripped to pieces unless we restart it."_

"_Goddamit! We'll start working on it from here. But we need the three of you here on the bridge. You're done in engineering."_

They made it back to the control room in no time. Isaac took the time to buy another plasma cutter from the store. Once he had a plasma cutter again, the human handed Tali back her near-worthless predator pistol.

"Alright. We're done here. Let's get to the bridge." Yayap was first to head towards the hallway. "Because Isaac's boss can't wipe his own ass without our help."

One final slasher attacked them right before they got to the tram. Tali shot first but Yayap delivered the finishing blow. The slasher died almost as soon as it had appeared. Tali and Yayap were getting really good at dismemberment.

"_Isaac…you're mom's a whore…"_ the whispers were back in Isaac's mind right as they boarded the tram. He did his best to try and ignore them.

* * *

**Author's Note:** In the original Dead Space you can hear creepy whispers throughout the game. If you slip on a pair of headphones you can sometimes make out what they're saying. Since this story is a mega crossover, I wondered what would happen if Halo's IWHBYD skull was in Dead Space. My conclusion is that the whispers would say funny and/or insulting things.


	17. The Good Doctor

**Chapter 17: The Good Doctor**

Despite the fact that the severity of his situation hadn't changed, Commander Zako had regained a large measure of his self-confidence. The mysterious whispers that had bugged him when he roamed around on the medical deck alone had gone silent. He was still without a weapon but now had three alien ponies to protect. Though in all fairness it was they who had protected him during Zako's latest (and the ponies' first) necromorph encounter. As long as Zako wasn't alone he had felt better. A squad of battle droids would have been more ideal companions, if Zako had droids under his command he would have felt good enough to go looking for a fight with the necromorphs, but the three random ponies would have to do for now.

The human and the trio of ponies hadn't run into a necromorph since the one Lyra decapitated. They were only startled by the occasional sound of metal hitting metal for some reason or a distant human-sounding scream. Overall they were pretty fortunate, Zako specifically as Lyra hadn't yet regained her desire for asking him questions. Very little was said between the group as they all listened intently for the sounds of danger.

Rainbow Dash hated feeling scared. It was unbecoming of a mare who was at the cusp of joining the Wonderbolts. She buried the sickening feelings of terror as best she could; she needed to be strong for her friends.

There were monsters lurking in the shadows and Rainbow Dash wasn't going to let them make a meal of Lyra or Vinyl. Rainbow hadn't been any help against the first one they encountered; the human had stopped her. She wasn't planning on being useless again, no matter what the human said.

Rainbow was wary of this human, the so-called Commander Karl Zako of the Separatist Droid Army. Dash may have been a little unfair in her judgment of him; the human hadn't actually done anything to warrant mistrust. There were just too many questions at the moment, and their current predicament didn't allow for many answers.

Lyra Heartstrings was not a happy pony. She had strange dreams of humans since she was a filly and when she finally met one the meeting was cut short by a horrible set of circumstances. She had so many questions for the being that most ponies considered nothing more than a fantasy creature only located in dusty old tomes.

Vinyl Scratch didn't care for the quiet. She was a disc jockey, she was so used to the feeling the beats of music pumping through her veins. For the moment, where the feeling of music would flow, fear pumped instead, albeit slightly muted fear. Vinyl had traveled all over Equestria for her music and even beyond its borders. She had seen a lot of things in her time, nothing like what she was seeing now but she got the feeling Lyra and Rainbow were more in shock than she was.

The three ponies were snapped from their personal thoughts and slowly ground down to a halt, watching their human companion and wondering why the human was so intent on not changing his course. A few more steps and he would walk right into the wall.

Zako slowed his pace and finally came to a stop right in front of a glowing blue circle on the wall. The human poked one of his fingered hands at the blue circle and a second later a portion of the wall slid away… on its own. Zako walked through the opening as if what he had done was the most normal thing in the world.

The three ponies followed the human's example and walked through the doorway.

"Cool," Lyra cooed.

The trio of ponies thought the human was using magic to make a secret door appear, or perhaps the door didn't even exist before and he had created it specifically for their use.

"How'd you do that?" Vinyl asked.

"Do what? It's just a door." Even based off what little conversation they had since meeting each other, the ponies' ignorance of modern technology (calling the _Ishimura_ modern was being generous) didn't surprise Zako as much as it might have had. Though when Zako thought about it a bit more the doors on the _Ishimura_ did blend in with the walls rather well, perhaps they just hadn't realized the door was there.

"You ponies aren't playing fair."

"Were we playing a game?" the white unicorn asked.

"Yeah…" Zako was about to say something sarcastic but decided against it. "No, not really. But you all keep asking me questions. Now it's my turn to ask some."

"Then ask." Lyra walked closer to the human.

"You haven't been all that great with your answers," Dash said.

Zako ignored the prismatic mare. It wasn't entirely his fault his answers sucked. Right now he had the urge to get one of his own queries answered.

"Are you guys biotics?"

"What? My barn door doesn't swing both ways!" Rainbow snapped, "not that it's any of your business." She flicked her rainbow-colored tail in annoyance.

"Yeah Karl, what the hay? You're moving kinda fast for this kind of thing…" Lyra was confused. "Wait… You're a male human, right?"

"Yes. But that doesn't have anything to do with my question…"

"You're a stallion, yet you want to know if we're bisexual? I don't get it."

"What?" the human jerked his head over to look at Lyra.

"Maybe he wants to see if he could do a herd with us and wants to make sure we'd enjoy each others company as much as his," Vinyl suggested.

"No! Not bisexual, biotic! Do you ponies listen to nothing I say?"

"The helmet kinda makes you hard to understand sometimes," Vinyl explained.

"What's a biotic?" Lyra asked.

"You don't know what a biotic is? But I saw you use biotic powers against that necromorph!"

"I don't know what 'biotics' is, but we used magic," Lyra stated.

"Magic?"

"Yep. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah…" Zako was confused. He was having a hard enough time trying to think and his headache slowly getting worse but he was sure the ponies had used biotics earlier. _Maybe they just call it something else… there's no such thing as magic._

"So, are you a unicorn human? You don't have a horn…" Lyra turned the conversation on the offensive and decided to question Zako.

"Unicorn human?"

"Yeah."

"Why would you think I'm a unicorn human… what would a… I don't even know where to begin on what's wrong with that…"

"You tried to use your magic against the monster earlier."

"The necromorph?"

"Necrowhatever. I'm talking about you here."

"That wasn't magic. It's science. It was a kinesis module." Zako pointed at the device attached to his arm.

"Ooookaaayyy."

"You used your magic on that door," Rainbow plainly stated.

"That wasn't magic either."

"Uh-huh. I know what I saw. You made that door open all on its own. You're a unicorn human! Admit it!"

"There are no unicorn humans. Just regular old humans."

"What about young humans?" Lyra smiled.

"Funny." Zako wheezed through his helmet. "The point I'm trying to make is humans have no 'magic.'"

"Right. So you have no magic but you have magic?" Vinyl asked.

"If you can call that magic," Rainbow snickered. The sight of Zako hurling the soda can wasn't actually an impressive feat to witness.

"It's not magic. Well… you can think of it as space magic if you want to I guess. I'll explain it later."

"Magic but no magic… so humans have no magic. So you invented devices to give you fake magic?" Vinyl thought she understood what the human was trying to say.

"You could put it that way, I guess."

Zako found another sun cola can lying on the floor.

He stopped and got the ponies' attention, pointed towards his right arm at the device. "This is what is actually doing it. Not me. I merely control it. Watch." He used the kinesis module to telekinetically grab the soda can. He started making it dance about in the air.

"Looks like magic to me," Dash said.

"Well, it isn't." The human snickered as he made the soda can dance in front of the hovering pegasus. She finally got fed up with the display and batted the can away with a hoof.

"You're no fun…" The human suddenly fell silent and turned his head one way and then the other, as if he were looking for something. The profile of his helmet's short snout was much from prominent from the side.

"Hear something, Zako?" Vinyl's ears perked up, but she didn't catch anything.

"No… Nothing. Doesn't hurt to be paranoid though." Zako had thought he heard something, but if none of the ponies had picked up on it he figured it was just nerves.

"So, why did that necro-thingy look human?" Lyra asked the question that had been bugging her since their first encounter with the creature she had decapitated.

"I'm not really sure. I think that necromorphs are humans infected with some sort of virus. I'm not sure."

"That's horrible!"

"Indeed… but I don't know if that's true or not. For all I know the necromorphs may well be just trying to mimic the forms of humans in a terrible attempt to blend in with them. Or maybe they're just trying to scare us."

"What's the best way to beat 'em?" Rainbow asked.

"I dunno. I only encountered them for the first time today. I don't know too much about them. Our best bet is to just _avoid_ them."

It was Vinyl's turn now. "Where are we headed?"

"I'm not sure. Right now the general idea is to be away from the necromorphs."

"You don't know much, do you?" Rainbow gave a slight smirk.

"It's not my fault. I'm just about as lost here as you ponies are."

"I think we're a little more lost than you."

"Still doesn't mean I know what's goin' on. Let me see if I can fix that." The armored human stopped at a bunch of blinking lights on a wall. The ponies noticed these lights were much different than the large circular one Zako had used before.

"Playing with the lights again?" Rainbow chortled.

"This is a computer terminal. I'm assuming you ponies don't know what this is either."

The ponies fell silent as they watched the human tap at the keyboard, not understanding what he was doing. Lyra and Vinyl were very content to just sit and stare at Zako while Rainbow Dash made a habit of checking out around them in case any necromorphs decided to show up.

"Hmmm… let's see… no, that can't be right…" the human mumbled to himself as he explored the computerized innards of the _Ishimura_. "… now who did this? What a fuckin' mess. It's as if they are trying to break the ship…"

Even knowing he wouldn't give a satisfactory answer; Vinyl was just about to ask the human about what he was doing when he suddenly spoke much louder.

"What do we have here? Someone's trying to call?" Zako tapped at the keyboard, answering the summons he had received on the computer. The image of another human filled the monitor screen.

"_You're not with the crew… Who are you?" _Zako recognized the voice.

"I am Commander Karl Zako of the Separatist Droid Army."

"_A Separatist? What are you doing here?"_ the human on the monitor demanded.

"I was captured and held hostage by a group of quarian terrorists. In an effort to elude my allies, they made a hyperspace jump and ended up in this system. They docked with this ship and we were set upon by the necromorphs. In the confusion, I was able to get away from my captors."

"_How do you know of the necromorphs?"_

"Thanks to you, good doctor. I found some of your personal logs on the medical deck. You're Dr. Kyne, correct?"

"_Yes. I'm Dr. Terrence Kyne, Chief Science Officer of the Ishimura."_

"It's good to see you see alive, Dr. Kyne. I was worried there was no one else left. My companions and I are looking for a way out of here."

The three ponies didn't know what to make about what was going on before them. Some sort of surreal image of a new human did appear out of the wall, after all. They figured Zako had done something with the lights again to manipulate such an event.

"_Interesting…" _Kyne seemed to regard the three ponies for a second._ "Commander Zako! I really… must speak with you! I'm very close to your position, and… and I know you'll want to hear what I have to say. I can explain all this! I know what happened! We must talk. Do you have an omni-tool?"_

"Yes." Karl noticed Kyne seemed a bit more… frantic than he was when compared to the audio and video logs the Separatist was able to find of the doctor during his sojourn on the medical deck.

"_Excellent. You can download a map of the ship from the terminal. We should trade channel numbers as well. We can stay in contact via our omni-tools rather than rely on the Ishimura."_

"Yeah, the _Ishimura_ isn't exactly reliable. Give me a moment. Got it."

The two humans exchanged communications numbers for their omni-tools and Kyne updated Zako with his location.

"You're not far from our position at all!" Zako exclaimed. "This is going to be easy!"

"_The quickest route will take you through the mess hall… and that may prove to be a problem."_

"Is it flooded with necromorphs?"

"_Possibly. There were some the last time I was there. But there is a way around them without getting into a confrontation. I'll fill you in on the details when you reach the mess hall."_

"Roger. We're moving to your location. See you soon."

"_Do be careful. And I also recommend you not eat or drink anything while on the Ishimura. You haven't yet, have you?"_

Zako looked at the ponies. "Eaten or drank anything?"

They all shook their heads no.

The CIS officer turned back to face the image of Kyne. "No, we haven't."

"_Good. Keep it that way. The food here has been tainted."_ The image of Dr. Kyne cut out from the video screen.

As soon as Kyne was gone Zako's helmeted head jerked around, attracted to a glowing blue light that surrounded a floating sun cola can… that was heading straight for Vinyl Scratch.

"Hey!" Zako batted the soda can out of the air.

"Dude!" Vinyl yelped.

"What did the doctor just say? We are not to ingest anything while we're here."

"Ingest?" Rainbow Dash was amused by the human's use of the fancy-sounding word. "Dude, Zako, you're such an egghead."

"I'm thirsty."

"I'm being serious, Rainbow, Lyra, _Vinyl_." Zako put emphasis on Scratch's name since it was she that he had caught trying to drink something. _What is with her?_ "No eating, drinking, biting, or putting anything in your mouths."

"Fine…" Vinyl groaned.

"Good. The last thing we need is somebody getting sick and dying from some sort of corrupted food or drink."

"Now that that's out of the way… what the buck was all that?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"What?" There were a few too many 'that's' for Zako to follow what Rainbow was asking.

"It's… it's like you were talking to a projection or something… and that glowing light on your arm…"

"That was another real-live human wasn't it?" Lyra squealed.

"Projection? So, you ponies do have some technology after all…"

"Yeah, we have projectors," Vinyl said, "nothing like whatever _that_ was though."

"Just think of it as a really advanced projector." Zako felt of wave of energy wash over his body, reinvigorating him. Dr. Kyne was still alive! Zako was finally starting to get some results!

"What was with that purple light on your arm?" Rainbow asked.

"My omni-tool."

"Why do I even bother asking…"

"Think of it as a fancy tool made of light."

"That helps…" Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"Sounds pretty cool to me," Scratch said.

"Yeah," Lyra agreed.

"Yes, well you can worry about omni-tools and computers later. We mustn't keep Dr. Kyne waiting."

The human led with way with the ponies quickly following. They were heading in the same direction they were before Zako had stopped at the computer terminal. Zako considered the possibility that they might have run into Kyne anyway even if the doctor hadn't contacted him, though they wouldn't have had the benefit of knowing that something might be lurking in the mess hall otherwise.

Lyra had regained a spring in her step. "I can't wait. Soon I'll meet my second human!"

"Bored with me already, huh? Oh well, I'm sure the doctor will be more than happy to take you off my hands."

"I didn't mean it that way…" Lyra's ears flattened against her head.

Commander Zako let out a chuckle, partially muffled by his helmet. "I'm just joking. I just find it… _interesting_ that you are so excited to meet another human. Wouldn't you be expecting to meet others besides me?"

"Well… yeah. But it's still fun to meet a second individual of a new species!"

Zako considered the fact that the xenomorphs and the necromorphs were new species… to him at least. He had met enough of them already. He had also had his fill of those weird masked aliens with the cloaking powers that had attacked him in Rupture Farms. He really hated them. Overall, the ponies were easily Zako's favorite new species he had encountered recently. It wasn't even a contest; they were the only ones who hadn't tried to kill him yet.

Lyra couldn't wait. From what she had seen on the magic screen, Kyne looked the same yet different from Zako at the same time. She could study their features better looking at them side-by-side. Lyra couldn't help but feel the grip of wonder strike her, forcing her fear to subside a little. After all, if they were heading towards another human, they were likely reaching a safer area. She couldn't wait to meet Kyne!

As they came across another door, Lyra increased her pace and got ahead of the others. "So…" the aquamarine unicorn started. "You say humans have no magic. Does that mean any of us can operate the circle of light?"

"That is correct."

"What do I have to do?"

"Just touch it."

"That's what he said," Vinyl snickered. Rainbow cackled.

"Yeah, that is what I just said." The joke went right over Zako's head, causing all three mares to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"You," Vinyl Scratch let out another giggle.

Lyra raised her right forehoof and pressed the blue circle. It made a short noise, just as the previous one had done when the human had handled it.

The door slid open. "Sweet." Lyra went through and the others followed.

The door slid closed again when they were all through. "I wanna try." Vinyl Scratch turned back around and pressed the blue circle, opening the door again.

"If you're all gonna try then I want to." Rainbow had a go at opening the door.

The ponies all started taking turns playing with the door. Zako was slightly amazed that the three goofballs hadn't been killed by the necromorphs yet. If a door would be able to distract them this much… there's no telling what the other modern wonders of the galaxy would do.

"If you three would stop playing with the door… we have to go meet the doctor before we get eaten. Or did you forget there are horrific monsters lurking about ready to tear us to pieces?"

"We haven't seen another. We're probably getting away from where the monsters are… right?" Lyra asked.

"No. If you remember what Kyne said, we might be walking _toward_ a group of them."

"Oh… right."

The light mood of merriment and wonder at the marvel of automatic doors and holographic touch screens had been killed with Karl Zako as its murderer. The rest of the trek was quieter, but the ponies were in slightly better spirits than earlier.

They finally reached a large door with the words: _Mess Hall_ going across a LED screen.

Commander Zako brought a hand up, signaling the ponies to stop. His arm once again lit up with a violet light.

"Doctor, we're right outside the door to the mess hall. What have you got for us?"

The voice of Kyne emanated from the violet light tool. Vinyl was especially interested in how the device worked, but those were questions for another time.

"_The mess hall is full of feeders. They are different from the other necromorphs. They were formed from members of the crew that ingested necromorph-infected meat. You will be able to recognize them on sight from their emaciated appearance. They cannot see very well, but they can hear just fine. You should be able to sneak past them as long as you are quiet and do not shine any light near them. If they attack you will have to run."_

"Understood, Zako out." The human turned to address the ponies. "You all ready for this?"

"Yeah…" Lyra didn't look so sure.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," Vinyl said.

"Ready," Rainbow nodded.

"Right, let's get this over with." The human touched the blue circle and the doors slid open. _Oh shit,_ Zako thought. _I hope the fuckers aren't attracted by the sound of the door opening._

Nothing attacked and Zako's fear that the door would give them away was put to rest.

The small group slowly crept into the mess hall. Many of the ceiling lights weren't working at all and the few that were operational were especially dim. It was plenty easy to see where they were supposed to go; another blue circle marked the door on the opposite end of the room that was their goal.

Zako hated being stealthy, mostly because he was so bad at it. His armored boots weren't exactly quiet and he preferred the marching roar of hundreds of battle droids making their presence known anyway. Having to sneak past monsters with a bunch of multicolor ponies was not something he was used to.

They couldn't see any of the so-called 'feeders' in the darkness. But they heard the sounds of flesh being chewed on. The ghastly sound of flesh and bone being consumed immediately put the three ponies on full alert. The urge was strong but nopony panicked. Rainbow Dash had to fight the urge to take to the air and just bolt over to the door. Vinyl Scratch wanted to light the room up with her magic so she could see better. Lyra Heartstrings would have rather just gone along some other route, even if it meant taking longer.

Everyone's ears registered the weird noises that came next. Odd clicks and yelps permeated the darkness. The whole group stopped and looked over to a specific dark area and vaguely saw thin shapes hunched down near the floor. The feeders sounded much different than the other necromorphs.

Rainbow Dash started moving again first, prompting the unicorns and the human to follow suit. The sooner they were out of there the better and stopping to stare down the horrid forms crawling around on all fours wasn't going to help them any.

The sounds were so weird. For Rainbow, the sounds were the worst part of the whole experience. The clicks switching over to the looping yelps and back again. It was hard to believe the two distinctly different noises were being made by the same type of creatures.

Commander Zako started to trail behind the ponies by a large margin. They were rather good at keeping the clopping of their hooves to a minimum but the human was going very slowly to keep his metal boots quiet.

Eventually, Lyra stopped and turned to see how far the human had fallen behind. Lyra stopping prompted Rainbow and Vinyl to also halt their progress. The three ponies stared at the slowly moving human; noticing one of the feeders had randomly wandered closer to Zako. The three ponies turned and started at each other. None of them had a clue what to do, even if one of them had an idea, they couldn't exactly voice it to anypony else.

The Separatist noticed the nearby feeder and started moving even slower. He did not want to call attention to himself. Seconds passed by as if they were hours but the human was finally able to put some distance between himself and the feeder.

Things were starting to get worse. More of the feeders were slowly crawling towards them. The feeders didn't seem to notice that the human and the ponies were there, the emaciated necromorphs still made the same creepy noises as before. They were just shuffling about looking for more food to eat, though out of sheer luck they were unknowingly approaching a new food source.

Lyra figured at the rate Zako was moving, the feeders would eventually bump right into him by accident even if he did keep quiet. Her mind raced on how she could save the human. One brilliant idea came to mind, if he couldn't move quickly and quietly on his own then she would have to do it for him with her magic. Lyra silently waved at Zako, hoping he would notice the gesture in the dark. He waved back.

Lyra pointed a hoof to her horn and then towards the human. Zako cocked his head to the side, not understanding what the unicorn was trying to tell him. Lyra repeated the motions again but from her perspective it seemed Zako still wasn't getting it. _This is taking too much time, _Lyra thought. _Now he isn't even moving at all! I'll just have to go for it. He won't make any noise if I just float him over._

A faint glow encased Lyra's horn and Zako was covered by a glowing green aura and lifted into the air.

"Lyra, no! The light!" Zako quietly screamed.

It wasn't clear if the feeders had been attracted to the light from Lyra's magic or Zako's voice but they knew they were there now. Lyra released Zako from her magical grip and the human's boots hit the floor with a thud. They took off running for the door.

"Nice job, Zako," Rainbow was at the front of the pack.

"How's this my fault?" the human wheezed, "Lyra's the one that lit me up like an exposed power core!"

"You were taking too long!"

They were almost within reach the door when the front most feeder grabbed Zako, causing him to stumble and fall face first onto the floor. The human wrestled with the spindly necromorph but the creature was stronger than it looked.

"Zako's in trouble!" Vinyl hollered.

Rainbow Dash opened her wings and took the air. The ceiling was low so there wasn't much room for her to fly but she was skilled enough to handle the confined space. She turned around and put on a burst of speed, reaching the struggling human in under a second. Dash bucked the feeder as hard as she could, sending it sprawling off the human and into the other feeders. When she had made contact with the vile creature she felt just how lightweight it really was, that wasn't too surprising since it was little more than skin and bones. What was a shock was how strong a grip it had on Zako; it almost hadn't let go.

As soon as Zako was freed of the feeder, Lyra grabbed him telekinetically and pulled him to the door. Rainbow bolted for the door, easily passing up the human being unceremoniously dragged by green magic.

The door shut before the feeders could get through. The human and the ponies were safe—for about two seconds.

There was a horrific roar and one of the necromorphs with the bladed hands was right upon them. Zako and the ponies were clustered close together; the necromorph could cut them all up instantly—if not for the fact that it was the one suddenly being sliced up.

A harsh blue light had pierced the necromorph from behind, starting at the stomach and slowly working up towards the head. After a second the monster had been cut in half vertically, the two separated pieces of its body falling away from each other, revealing Dr. Terrence Kyne.

"You've made it! Oh, thank god!"

"Thanks to you, Doctor." Zako breathed heavily.

Dr. Kyne shut off his weapon; a plasma saw he had stolen. The science officer gave the others a brief moment to rest. Vinyl noticed the human's weapon. It looked like some kind of saw made out of light. It was so sweet; she'd have to ask how the humans made such a thing later.

"Thanks for saving me, Rainbow."

"You're welcome."

"Oh, and thanks for saving me too, Lyra."

The aquamarine unicorn was confused. She had messed up but Zako had sounded sincere.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"It was you that pulled me away, right?"

"Yeah…"

"I wouldn't be here if you hadn't."

"Oh… right. You're welcome."

"Lyra, what part of no light didn't you get?" Vinyl asked.

"I forgot! Besides, Karl was moving too slow! They were going to find him! I had to do something!"

"Dr. Kyne!" Zako addressed the waiting science officer. "It's good to finally meet you in person. We have much to discuss. First off, we need to get the hell out of here."

"I'm sure you want to leave this place but escape is impossible at this point." Kyne's statement was met with blank stares.

"No no no no, don't lose hope! Don't lose hope. At first, I lost hope, I tried to scuttle the ship, sabotage the systems."

"What?!"

"Amelia… she changed things. The Church, they think the Marker is divine! But they don't know what's happened here! What's been released! Look look look… look at this…" Kyne's omni-tool projected a video feed of some sort of gigantic creature springing up from the bowels of Aegis VII.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Clearly you haven't been paying attention to what I'm about to say. That is what we found in the core of the planet. Mercer calls it the hive mind, the source controlling the necromorphs telepathically. We were so stupid! Amelia, she knew it could be stopped by returning the Marker to the planet. The Marker was containing it within the planet. If we return the Marker, we can seal the hive mind. Please… I'm sorry Amelia… I bear some responsibility for this tragedy and must take responsibility for ending it. I must atone for my sins. But you can help me."

Lyra couldn't take it anymore. The fear, the confusion, the awful smell, the horrible noises the monsters made, their physical appearance, the fact that they wanted to slice her into little pieces. She moved close to the wall as quickly as she could and started throwing up. Vinyl and Rainbow went over to make sure she was okay.

Zako pulled Kyne aside, partly to give Lyra some sense of privacy and partly to question the doctor on his own.

"You ever seen a species like theirs before?" Zako tried to keep his voice down. He was pretty sure Lyra was too busy hurled up whatever her last meal was and her friends were busy making sure she was alright was to pay any attention to him but he tried to talk quietly all the same.

"No, I haven't." Kyne followed Zako's example and also spoke in a hushed whisper. "But they look a lot like the horses we have back on Earth. They're a little smaller, I'd say they're closer to ponies."

"Right. The green one and the white one told me they're _unicorn_ pones. The blue one is a pegasus pony."

"Unicorns and pegasai only exist in Earth fiction."

"Well, unicorn and pegasus ponies exist on some planet I've never heard of somewhere. They say they don't know how they got here. They didn't even know where here was. You know anything about this?"

"No. The _Ishimura_'s crew is… was comprised entirely of humans as far I know. I don't think they came up from the colony, it was also all-human from what I heard."

"Great. Well I have no idea where the hell these three came from and neither does anyone else."

"At this point I think we should be more concerned with the necromorphs."

"Agreed. Just thought I'd ask."

Zako turned back to the unicorn pony, who looked like she was done blowing chunks. "You okay?"

"Better…" Lyra wiped away some puke hanging from her mouth with her hoof.

"We better get moving before the feeders find a way to us through the vents." Kyne started walking.

Lyra tried to get a good glimpse of Kyne but it was hard to do while moving and the doctor leading the way. The aquamarine unicorn did notice that Kyne had a brown mane, and while short by pony standards, it was much longer than Zako's (which was almost non-existent). She barely got a peek at his blue eyes, which weren't mismatched like Zako's were.

"You sound like you have an idea to stop this," Zako spoke, "how can we help you?"

They rounded a corner and went through a door. Kyne was about to answer Zako's question when a horrible scraping sound interrupted him. The scraping sounds were accompanied by snarls and growls and a cacophony of flesh being torn.

Everyone recognized some of the noises as belonging to a necromorph but out of the whole group only Zako was able to recognize the second set of sounds, the growls and hisses that didn't belong to a necromorph…

A necromorph suddenly burst through one of the wall vents. It was missing its left arm and its right leg was cut off at the knee. Soon enough Grid oozed out of the now-open hole in the vent covering.

"What is that?" Dr. Kyne switched on his plasma saw.

More vent coverings around the room started to blow outward as several necromorphs burst forth. There were a total of four in all, not counted the near-death one Grid was finishing off.

Vinyl and Lyra wasted no time in shooting magic energy beams at the monsters.

Rainbow Dash set her wings into motion, shooting off towards one of the necromorphs. She didn't know how she could stop the monster, but she was going to try. She started circling around the necromorph at high speed, a rainbow streak trailing behind her. This was a move she had created herself, calling it the 'rainblow dry.' She had once used the aerial maneuver to blow off mud when she had first met Twilight Sparkle. Now she used it to try and throw the necromorph off balance. The monster did trip around its own feet as it tried to slash Dash with bladed hands, but Rainbow couldn't completely knock it off kilter.

That Rainbow Dash was able to pull off any aerial maneuvers with such a low ceiling and limited space demonstrated just how skilled she was. She eventually gave up and broke away, revealing a very dizzy necromorph.

Lyra and Vinyl were likewise unsuccessful with stopping any of the necromorphs. Their magical beams merely knocked them away. Kyne had carved up one of the necromorphs while Grid had finished off his original prey and moved on to a new opponent. The kinesis module attached to Zako's arm proved to be as unhelpful in battle as it ever was.

Another necromorph crawled out from the vents, this one right near Rainbow.

"Look out!" Zako was tired of being useless. He charged in and threw his armored shoulder into the necromorph, knocked it (and himself) over. He tried to roll over to his side and push off the beast before it sliced him up with its deadly scythes.

Instead of a sickly blade in his face, Zako found rainbows. Dash had burst forth and tackled him out of the way of the necromorph's blade just in time. Angry at being deprived of its prey, the necromorph got up quickly—only to be knocked back by Lyra and Vinyl's magical energy blasts. The creature was stunned long enough for Kyne to come in and cut off its arms, before finishing it off with a decapitation.

There was only one necromorph left and Grid was taking care of it. The xenomorph had knocked the necromorphs to the floor, but went down alongside it. Grid grabbed the necromorph by the shoulders and started kicking at its body with his legs. The xenomorph kept kicking and kicking with unrelenting speed and power until the necromorph was reduced to strips of bloody flesh.

Grid got back up to his feet. With the fight over, the xenomorph's facehugger companion finally exited out of the vents.

Kyne stared at the black creature; his plasma saw hungering to cut through flesh once more.

"Don't get near him!" Zako warned the doctor.

Dash hadn't heard Zako's command and was just about to buzz near the monster.

"Stop! STOP!" Zako barely grabbed onto Rainbow Dash before she reached the xenomorph.

Acting on reflex, Dash bucked him in the chest… hard. There was a loud twang sound as hoof hit metal. A hit like that would have broken a few ribs if not for Zako's quality armor _and_ personal shielding. Zako wanted to just fall over and die after that hit, but instead held onto the cyan pegasus and pushed her back.

"What the hay?!" Dash hovered midair. She was really getting tired of Zako holding her back.

"Don't go near him! He's not like the necromorphs!"

"Care to explain?" Kyne asked.

"Just shut up! Stay away! You pick a fight with this thing and we're all dead!"

Everyone was silent. Zako was much closer to the xenomorph than he wanted to be but he held his ground. He wasn't sure how the xenomorph would react if he showed overt fear by backing away.

Grid regarded the collection of creatures that stood before him for a moment. His facehugger came over and grabbed onto his left arm. Grid gave out a short growl before leaving into one of the wall vents.

The two humans and three ponies listened as the xenomorph crawled through the vents. The sounds of movement died out as Grid moved further away from their location.

Zako slumped over on the floor. "Damn, Rainbow. You hit harder than the fucking necromorphs."

"Sorry. It kinda just happened. You shouldn't have gotten in the way."

"If I hadn't we'd all be dead now," Zako snapped. "That thing with the green grid scar on his head… is more dangerous than the necromorphs."

"What is it?" Kyne asked.

"A xenomorph."

"Precisely what is it? What's it doing here? Do you know how it got aboard this ship?" Kyne was now getting a taste of Zako's inadequate answers, something the ponies had been suffering from for a while.

"It stowed away on the freighter I came in on. From what I know it's basically just a really dangerous animal. It's been hunting the necromorphs ever since it got on this ship. I think it's been using me as bait to lure them in. It hasn't attacked me yet but do not provoke it. It is not friendly."

"Friendly enough that it didn't eat us," Vinyl said.

"Fascinating. I've never seen such a creature before," Kyne mused.

"Looked kinda human-ish," Lyra said.

"Doesn't look like Zako or Kyne," Rainbow said.

"Sorta like Zako if you count his armor." Vinyl cranked her neck back and forth, cracking her bones a bit.

"You two really serious?" Zako couldn't believe Lyra and Vinyl. "I do not look like a xenomorph."

"_I_ said it looked human-ish. Vinyl's the one that said _you_ look like one."

A sudden roar echoed from some nearby location. They could feel the vibrations on the floor from the sound. Suddenly one of the walls of the room was punctured as a huge clawed hand tore its way through.

"Now is the time to run," Kyne said, "Amelia knows a way out of here."

As the wall was torn away the survivors witnessed the form of a huge, top-heavy necromorph. Unlike the other variants, this one looked to be too large to have been formed from a mere human.

"Ohhhh…. Fuck me," Zako groaned. They were in no position to fight the huge monstrosity. Out of the whole group, Kyne was the only one with an effective weapon.

They were all out one of the doors and started running down a hall by the time the behemoth had forced its way into the room.


	18. Obliteration Imminent

**Chapter 18: Obliteration Imminent**

The tram finally came to a complete stop. It was as long a tram ride as it could possibly be, starting from the engines and stopping at the bridge at the front of the ship.

Yayap, Tali'Zorah and Isaac Clarke got off. Though the tram seemed to be a safe zone, they were all ready to stretch their legs and walk around again even if it meant that they might be attacked again.

"No one to greet us?" Tali looked around. "So much for a hero's welcome."

"Probably staying holed up in the bridge," Yayap said, "better to be in the safety of numbers." The unggoy walked over to an advertisement on the wall.

The ad read: _How do we measure success? _There was no indication as to what the ad was for.

Tali noticed what had gotten Yayap's attention and read the ad aloud. "How do we measure success?"

"By not dying," Yayap answered. The two shared a laugh while Isaac stayed silent. "Come on Isaac, loosen up. That was funny."

Seeing as Isaac wasn't going to join in the fun, Tali and Yayap decided to cut their merriment short and head through the hallway towards the bridge. There seemed to be the weirdest green glow in the corridor, and it didn't seem to be from the lighting.

A left turn at a store kiosk and the trio arrived at the _Ishimura_'s command bridge.

"Fuck, there's a lotta people here," Yayap managed to blurt out. Penn had neglected to inform Tali and Yayap just how many people were still alive and kicking. It was rather surprising just how many people there were. Such numbers greatly increased their odds of survival, provided that every individual had access to at least one weapon. From a quick glance though, Yayap could already see that was not the case. There were plenty of uniformed humans, the bridge staff, that had nothing. They'd be nothing more than zombie bait if they weren't armed soon.

The other thing that caught Yayap's immediate attention was the sheer physical size of the bridge. There was so much empty room in between the various computer terminals and the ceiling was so high it was ridiculous. A geonosian could have given their wings a good workout in this room had they been inclined to. Not even the command bridges of the Confederacy's _Lucrehulk_-class ships were as large or spacious (and the Lucrehulk ships were a great deal larger than the _Ishimura_ itself).

In Tali's mind, it was all just a horrible waste of space. There was so much room the quarians could make use of. The Migrant Fleet could have definitely made use of such a ship. It was a shame the CEC was so slow to retire their ships, painfully so. The _Ishimura_ was the first ship of its class and the CEC _still_ hadn't retired it yet, almost as if the corporation was taunting the quarians.

None of it was new for Isaac Clarke, and the human engineer was unimpressed with both the size of the bridge and how many people still occupied it.

Before anyone could get another word in there was a sudden impact. Something had torn right through the ceiling and smashed through the floor, cutting numerous screams short and knocking several individuals off their feet.

"Fuck!" Lena cried as her ass hit the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Zaeed demanded.

"Warning: Hull breach detected," the _Ishimura_'s VI announced.

"No shit you stupid computer!" Krunch yelled up at the ceiling. There really wasn't anywhere to turn to specifically address the ship's VI and the slig had decided to just look up at the ceiling. It made the most sense to him, it sounded like the computer's feminine voice was coming from some loudspeaker above him.

"Is everyone alright?" Alissa Vincent looked around to see the damage that had been done.

All it took was a quick look at the impact area to see that several of the bridge staff had been killed by the asteroid collision.

System failure lights read across half the computer screens on the bridge, bathing the area in a soft orange glow.

"I'm reading heavy damage, but containment looks solid. Life support is stabilized. We've got to get the ADS working!" Kendra announced.

"The what?" Yayap asked.

"The Asteroid Defense System," Acting Captain White clarified. "It's currently offline."

"Fuckin' asteroids comin' through the roof," Krunch complained. The slig's complaining had caught the unggoy's attention.

"Krunch!"

"Yayap!" The slig and the unggoy greeted each other with a fist bump. Fist bumping was a common greeting for the two species, as they were both known for having strong upper body strength. Krunch and Yayap didn't know each other very well, but they had few official allies for the time being. Both felt good seeing a face they knew they could trust.

Acting Captain White started taking attendance of the bridge crew to see who all had been lost due to the impact. Tali reunited with Penn and Lena. Isaac Clarke went over to see if he could do anything to help Kendra, Hammond and Chen.

What followed was a series of short, confusing conversations as the crew of the _Kellion_ struggled to help the bridge staff figure out precisely what they needed to do to rectify the situation. Meanwhile, Yayap and Tali were filled in regarding the situation between the quarians and the bounty hunters. The two opposing factions weren't back to threatening each other yet, but they were getting close.

"I don't see the problem," Yayap said, "the quarians weren't helping the geth. This whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. We just need to work together to get out of here. Then we just need to go back to Oddworld and explain what really happened and all should be forgiven."

"You're an idiot if you think we're going back to that planet," Lena hissed.

"What makes you think they'll forgive us?" Penn asked.

"Why wouldn't they forgive you? You might not get your geth parts back; they'll probably keep those. But at least you shouldn't have any more problems. And if you don't go back and explain, you'll cause trouble between the CIS and the Migrant Fleet if you leave the glukkons thinking you were trying to help the geth take over their planet."

"That doesn't solve our problem," Zaeed cut in. "The droid general was very clear that he wanted his officer back alive. And I expect to be paid in full after dealing with all this shit."

"And the officer is nowhere to be found," 4-LOM added.

"He's probably dead," Penn said. "That's on you guys anyway. What's more important, your job or your life? If he's alive… and not an idiot then he should be making his way to the bridge sooner or later. So his status right now is really a non-issue. Either he shows up or he doesn't."

"He's one of the General's top guys. OOM-9 is gonna be really fuckin' pissed if he doesn't come back," Yayap warned the others. Yayap didn't know Zako on a personal level. It would have been better for the unggoy if they just forgot about the Separatist cyborg and left the _Ishimura_ as soon as possible. But Yayap didn't like of idea of leaving someone behind. And the unggoy had worked with the cyborg long enough to know that Commander Zako didn't leave troops behind, General OOM-9 and his officers didn't work that way. Yayap was an officer himself, and thus he felt he shouldn't abandon allies either.

"I don't think we can comb the ship looking for him," Tali said, "it's too big."

"And we don't have a comb!" Krunch added.

"What if he tries to get to the _Ebon Hawk_ and leave us all behind?" Lena theorized. Yayap had a hard time believing Zako would do that.

Zaeed was having a hard time arguing any further; he felt a massive headache coming on and really didn't want to listen to any more bitching for at least a little while.

"Alright, everyone listen up!" White spoke up for everyone to hear. "We've figured out how to fix the ADS but we need to-"

The acting captain was cut off by the sounds of metal being torn apart. Huge clawed hands tore down the bridge's security room door. A large, top-heavy necromorph plodded onto the pristine deck of the bridge. Zaeed Massani and his two droid bounty hunters recognized it as the same creature they had fled from in the hangar bay.

The necromorph let out an ear-splitting roar that was almost drowned out by the sounds of weapons fire as those who were armed started shooting. The thing charged forward, moving on both its arms and legs. It was incredibly fast for such a large being, much faster than it had any right to be. It was as if someone had put in the creature into fast-forward mode. Tali decided to slow it down with a stasis blast before it smashed into anyone.

"Our weapons aren't working!" Hammond yelled.

"No shit!" Krunch moved around and started shooting it in the side. It wasn't any better than shooting it in the front but at least he wouldn't be in the way when the stasis wore off.

"Shoot it in the back! It doesn't seem to have much armor in the back!" Chen had gotten behind the creature and seemed confident that he was actually doing damage with his pulse rifle. It was actually an incredibly stupid move on Chen's part. He had put himself in the line of fire by going around behind the necromorph. Luckily it was a large target and no one was missing any of their shots.

The stasis effect had worn off and 4-LOM momentarily staggered the beast with a volley of concussion shots. HK-47 bathed it with his wrist flamethrower and the necromorph really started to slow down. Krunch's assault rifle managed to clip the beast's left arm off, but it didn't die.

The fight was going much better when more necromorphs started invading the bridge. A couple of slashers, a handful of leapers and an infector roamed around the room looking for victims.

One of the slashers started chewing on one of the unarmed crewmembers when Zaeed put them both out of their misery with an inferno grenade.

The lone infector of the group singled out Hammond and the security officer fled down towards the captain's nest, out of sight and out of reach of anyone else's help.

A leaper chased after Kendra but was stopped by Isaac's plasma cutter.

Krunch and Yayap worked together to bring down a slasher had hungered for their flesh.

The necromorph attack faltered quickly. The survivors simply had too many gun-toting people in one area.

It was HK-47 who made the final killing blow on the large necromorph, blasting off the thing's remaining arm with his trusty assassin rifle. There was a sickening _crack_ as the arm came off. Not having any arms at all the large beast just seemed to give up on life and dropped down dead with a _thunk_.

When the fight finally ended those with weapons went around and made sure the corpses were corpses and not just necromorphs feigning death.

"What a clusterfuck," Krunch left out a breath as he prodded at the large, dead necromorph with his rifle.

"There's gonna be so many corpses lying around soon we won't have room to walk!" Yayap said.

"Maybe that's they're plan," Krunch huffed. "Build a wall of bodies so high we won't be able to go anywhere."

"Sir," one of the crewmembers informed White. "One of the escape pods has been launched!"

"What? Who launched that escape pod?"

"It was me," Hammond came up from the captain's nest.

"Why did you do that? You weren't authorized to-"

"I trapped one of those _things_, in the pod. I thought it was dead. It wasn't. So I launched it."

"We only have three pods left!" one of the crewmembers exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter," Chic spoke up. "The escape pods have no long range capability anyway. If we used them we'd have two choices. Go down to the planet, which is a worse option than staying here, or float around hoping someone shows up to rescue us. More likely the pod would run out on life support before that happens. Which is why we haven't used them in the first place," Chic glared at the crewmember. The man should have known better.

"Everyone listen up!" White spoke. "The escape pods don't matter now. What matters is getting the ADS up and running. The main power to the ADS is shot and but can be restored by rerouting it through three separate junction boxes. But before we can even to that, we need to get the elevators up and running again."

"The elevators leading to the other sub decks of the bridge are offline. The controls are in the security room," Chic explained.

"No one thought to fix this until we showed up?" Yayap asked.

"We were busy fighting for our lives," Vincent said.

"Yeah, well so were we. But _we_ got the engines going again," the unggoy retorted.

"Ah-hem," Tali cleared her throat.

"_They_ got the engines working," the special ops unggoy corrected himself.

"Fixing the elevators will be easy enough, I just need two others to accompany me," Chic said.

Clarke and Chen stepped forward. The trio passed through a security room that the large necromorph had broken through. Chen checked his surroundings, not wanting to get caught. It was unlikely there were any of the creatures nearby, it seemed like they had all participated in the massive attack on the bridge. It didn't hurt to be careful though.

Chic was soon at the computer terminal and started working to get the elevator online again.

Isaac stole a power node and noticed a workbench in the storage room that was one doorway over from the security room. He quickly upgraded his plasma cutter (which he really needed to since Yayap had ended up with the plasma cutter he had upgraded previously).

"Finished," Chic said.

"Atrium elevators are now online," the ship's computer announced.

The three humans walked back to the bridge. The whole assignment had taken less than four minutes.

"We're going to have to send squads out to the junction boxes to manually activate them," White said. "Any volunteers?"

"I'll go." Tali raised her hand. She had gotten the ship's engines up and running, so the quarian had no problem with the new objective. Better she do it than someone less qualified and staying on the bridge had lost its appeal after that large attack.

"We'll go too," Penn volunteered himself and Lena.

"No you don't," Zaeed snarled. "You quarians can't stay in a group together. There's no guarantee that they won't try to make a break for their ship and leave us all behind."

"Our ship doesn't work!" Penn jabbed a finger in the direction of the human mercenary.

"You don't know for sure. And you might just fix it before we reach you." Zaeed crossed his arms.

"Stop fighting," Vincent snapped.

"I have an idea," Yayap spoke up. "Just split everyone up. I'll go with Tali. One of the other quarians can stay with the bounty hunters, and so on."

"I can live with that," Tali agreed. She didn't mind working with Yayap again and considering the unggoy had paired himself with Tali, he didn't seem to mind working with her again either.

"I don't like it." Lena kicked at the floor.

"You don't have to," the unggoy said, "but we don't have a lot of _time_ here. Or do you want the asteroids to turn us all into bloody paste?"

"Fine."

"So what are the squads?"

"You, Red," Yayap pointed at Lena. "You're with Massani and the red droid. And you," the grunt pointed at Penn, "you stay with the gray droid here and guard the bridge. Tali, me and Krunch will go fix the first junction box thingy."

"Nah. I'll stay here and be in charge of not dying," Krunch said.

"So you want to stay on the bridge, where the space zombies just staged a massive assault and asteroids are smashing through the ceiling?"

"Eh…err… I see your point. I'll come with you guys."

"Okay. Let's get going." Yayap, Krunch and Tali took the elevator down.

The silence was broken when they heard a very loud shriek as the elevator reached their floor.

"Wonder who that was." Krunch got off first, looking around.

"They're probably dead now." Yayap said.

They walked down an empty hallway—or it would have been empty except for the fact that there was a corpse of one of the space monsters lying on the ground in their way.

"They sure do love this trick." Yayap pointed his plasma cutter at the thing's legs and fired.

After being hit and realizing its trap wasn't going to work, the slasher sprang upward only to be knocked by down by Tali's shotgun. Krunch clipped one of its arms with his T-1 assault rifle and the thing died for real.

"All too easy," Krunch said with an air of confidence.

"You rather they were more difficult?" Tali asked.

As they went they made sure to be on the lookout for whoever had screamed back when they were on the elevator. It was unlikely the woman was still alive but they kept an eye out just in case. They continued on for a few more seconds before Chic contacted them on Tali's omni-tool.

"_It looks like some of the gravity plating is malfunctioning. Watch out for distortions."_

"Oh, that's just great. I swear this ship is trying to kill us," Krunch complained. The slig was becoming more and more certain that someone had purposefully designed the planet cracker ship to be a deathtrap, it actually kind of reminded Krunch of Rupture Farms but the slig had the advantage that he knew and was accustomed to Rupture Farms. He didn't know this ship very well.

Just as Chic had warned, the trio did indeed see gravity distortions in their path.

There was a tiny little shriek and one of the baby monsters approached from around a corner.

"Little baby!" Krunch called out.

The miniature monster went for them but crawled right into the gravity distortion and was instantly killed, its body endlessly pressed up to the ceiling by the distortion effect.

"Stupid little baby," the slig laughed. "Just as dumb as the mudokons."

They passed by several more gravity distortions and a few more necromorphs before they end of a hall where a stasis recharge station was mounted on the wall. Tali went over and recharged her stasis module. It was a fortunate placement; she was nearly out of energy for the device.

The group froze when they entered the next room. There was a familiar rumble on the floor and another of the large necromorphs was barreling down at them. The situation was worse this time. The previous one they encountered was hit by everyone's weapons, but now the survivors only composed a small squad of three.

Tali hit it with stasis. Krunch was first to get behind the monster and start shooting it in the back. They may have had fewer guns shooting than the fight on the bridge, but they knew how to bring the large creature down this time. Yayap and Tali followed the slig's example and also got around behind the beast to shoot it in the back.

Eventually the stasis effect wore off and the necromorph was able to turn itself around with ludicrous speed. It charged in and Tali hit it with stasis once more right as it swung a reinforced claw at Yayap. With the monster suddenly in slow motion, Yayap grabbed onto the claw and crawled across the arm and dug his plasma cutter right into the soft meat connecting the arm and the body. He fired off five rounds and the limb broke away from the body. Yayap had fought physically larger enemies all the time. He had a great deal of experience fighting the jiralhanae during the Covenant Civil War. The main trick with dealing with larger enemies was using their size against them. It could mean fighting in confined spaces or even crawling on your enemies. Yayap found that using one's enemy as a jungle gym as particularly effective, especially if he could get to an area the enemy couldn't easily reach. The tactic had worked stupendously against the large, brutish monster.

The massive necromorph staggered as it was freed from stasis once more, having difficultly seamlessly adapting to only having one arm. Krunch's assault rifle finally cut off the other arm and the monster fell down to the floor in a _thump_.

"Two brutes down. Hopefully this ship doesn't have many more left." Yayap reloaded his plasma cutter. He was dangerously low on ammo. He had already emptied his needler; he wasn't in the mood to go searching for yet another weapon if the plasma cutter ran dry.

"Brutes?" Tali asked.

"They remind me of the jiralhanae. They are sometimes called brutes, mostly cause so many can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce jiralhanae."

"Right… you're gonna run out of nicknames at some point," Tali ejected her shotgun's spent thermal clip.

In the next room some loose cables were going crazy. Endless sparks of electricity spouted from the broken tips as the wires violently threw themselves around the room. It was a wonder they hadn't shorted out completely already. It seemed as if they were only interested in clinging to electric life only to be an obstacle to the survivors. Tali hit them with stasis and ran over to the ADS power panel while the wires were stuck in slow motion.

"Power transferred to the ADS."

The slig, quarian and unggoy started backtracking to the bridge, with Tali stopping at the stasis recharge station again. They hoped they wouldn't find any new enemies along the way.

* * *

Zaeed Massani, HK-47 and Lena'Xel had taken the elevator to up to level three. They were all quiet; the quarian had nothing to say to the two bounty hunters that had been hired to capture her. Lena didn't think they would try anything; they didn't seem like the stupid kind of mercenaries she usually encountered. But that of course meant they could probably take her in a fight.

When the elevator unleashed them it was an exceptionally short walk before they were set upon by a pair of necromorphs. They mostly looked like the standard monster they usually fought: the kind that walked on two legs and had scythe-like blades coming out of their hands. Though these two were more unique than the standard fare. One was grotesquely overweight and had a nauseating yellow hue to its bulging skin. There other once was much darker than the others usually were and had glowing red eyes.

It was an exceptionally unlucky situation; the necromorphs were nearly upon them. Lena's pistol was ineffective against both of the enemies. Zaeed was getting low on ammo for his avenger assault rifle and switched to his X-29e mantis sniper rifle.

"Enthusiastic Declarative: Bite my shiny metal ass!" HK-47 hit both of the necromorphs with his wrist flamethrower.

Despite the close combat and the intense flames blurring his vision, Zaeed was still able to expertly aim his sniper rifle and clipped off one leg from each of the burning monsters. After that HK-47 stomped the fat one to death while Lena actually managed to kill the one with red eyes with her little M-6 carnifex pistol.

Their junction box was right in the room where the two zombies had emerged. Once the flames eating the corpses died down, the trio stepped over them and the quarian went over to play with the control system on the wall.

Strange whispers danced at the edge of Zaeed's hearing as he waited for the quarian to finish her work. _If you're always the one to make it out alive and all of HK-47's masters eventually end up dead, how to you think this is going to end for you?_

"_Control systems junction box re-routed. I'm getting a reading! Almost there." _Chic came in over HK's omni-tool.

Zaeed thought he saw someone on the edge of his periphery vision. It was not one of the hostile aliens. He left the other two for a second to investigate. He suddenly saw a man in the doorway. There was something… _odd_ about the individual. He carried himself as if he were strung up by some unseen puppeteer. The human did not look like one of the _Ishimura_ crew. Suddenly it clicked in Zaeed's mind, the man before him was his old buddy Narko.

_What the fuck is going on?_ Zaeed was not one to crack under pressure and he knew there was no way that Narko could be standing before him. Narko was dead, had been killed in a bar shootout years ago. Yet here he was, standing before Zaeed, looking him dead in the eye.

A second later and Narko ran off. Zaeed didn't follow. He merely stared at where Narko had stood, trying to make sense of what had just transpired.

"Query: Is there something wrong, Master?"

"No. I thought I saw something. It's nothing."

* * *

Yayap's group had made it back to the bridge, where they were promptly sent on another elevator on the opposite side of the first one they had ridden. Krunch noticed that the male quarian in white armor, Penn and the gray droid 4-LOM still got to stay on the bridge. It didn't seem fair but the slig did not voice his complaint. Krunch was still paranoid another asteroid might smash through the bridge again. Yayap had put the idea in his head and the slig couldn't get rid of it. Krunch had a feeling that where they were going wasn't much better but at least he hoped he'd avoid getting splattered by space rocks that were randomly hitting the ship. Tali and her two Separatist allies rode the elevator down to level one.

A small quartet of little swarmers greeted them when the elevator came to a stop and opened up. Tali shot two of them with her pistol while Krunch crushed one of them with the business end of his rifle. Yayap smacked the last one with his bare hand, causing it to burst.

"I wish all of 'em were this weak," Krunch said.

"Weren't you saying this was too easy earlier?" Tali asked. She thought the slig really needed to make up his mind.

_To the Mining Admin Room_ the LED screen above the doorway before them read.

The mining admin room had a bizarre blue hue. Why the lighting was like this they could only guess. More importantly there were loose gravity panels all over the place. And even more significant than that—they had spotted a slasher dragging a corpse across the floor. This one seemed different from the others they had fought. Its skin was dark, nearly black and it had glowing red eyes.

Krunch kicked things off first, firing his assault rifle at the thing's arms. Yayap followed up with a couple of blasts from his plasma cutter (he was being conservative with his shots since his ammo was dangerously low).

The monster lost an arm and a leg but was still alive and started crawling towards them. Tali fired her pistol, shooting the thing in one of its red eyes—it was mad and very wounded yet still kept crawling forward. Tali activated her combat drone and the quarian's little glowing orb finished the slasher with a little shock. It was rather comical.

The combat drone started flying about the room, flushing out little baby necromorphs that had been hiding in the shadows. Out in the open and making little hisses, Tali and her teammates were able to locate and kill the little monsters. At the end Yayap took to calling them lurkers, due to their penchant to lurk around rather than directly attack like most of the other alien zombies did.

Tali made it to the third and final junction box. It only took a few seconds to switch it on. It was so painfully simple that the quarian was sure even the slig or the unggoy could do it. But Tali liked being able to tease Yayap that _she_ was the one completed the objectives and fixing the ship, so she kept quiet about the little fact that the unggoy could have done it himself.

"Asteroid Defense System now online."

"_All right, we've got enough power. But the ADS cannon's auto targeting is down. I think it's a faulty data cable. Mr. Massani, I need your team to aim the cannon manually until I can replace it. Take the elevator to the top of the ship and head for the cannon pit." _Chic spoke to both squads at once over the comm.

Yayap, Krunch and Tali started backtracking to the bridge. With any luck they were done and Zaeed's team could handle the rest from their end.

* * *

"Alright, let's move." Zaeed, HK-47 and Lena were still up on the third level and ready to go. They had only a short trek through a hall to the cargo lift. The slow ride went by without any conversation between the three survivors. Lena could have sworn she heard some sort of whispers. At first the quarian had thought her suit's radio was malfunctioning but she soon realized the whispers seemed to be coming from inside her own head. She knew it was likely just the stress of the situation making her hear things but the soft voices seemed so real. She wondered if anyone else was having this problem but didn't ask.

Once the cargo lift came to a shot there was just a quick walk through another hallway to the airlock.

"_You're going to have to cross the ship exterior to reach the ADS cannon. Problem is, we're still getting bombarded by asteroids. Look for cover or you'll get torn to pieces."_

"HK, you should be able to handle this yourself."

"Agreement: Of course, Master. There is obviously no need for all three of us to become potential asteroid paste. As your faithful droid it is my duty to make sure you stay alive as long as possible."

Zaeed couldn't help but note that HK-47 had a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. The bounty hunter didn't mention it to his droid but the reason he and Lena weren't going was because Zaeed thought the hull of the ship would be the perfect place for the quarian to try and betray them. It wasn't likely but it was a possibility. Zaeed Massani may be working with the quarians but he did not trust them.

The old assassin droid entered the airlock on his own. Lena and Zaeed backtracked a bit to loot a storage room.

"Entering vacuum. Entering zero-gravity. Warning: Multiple impacts detected across the starboard hull."

HK-47 found the walk along the surface of the ship to be enjoyable. Every so often a flurry of debris would impact on the ship's hull and the assassin droid would have to take cover. HK-47 enjoyed the show of random violence. As far as the rusty red droid was concerned, the ship could be torn apart by asteroids. But that would kill his master, and HK-47 rather liked Zaeed Massani. The human was a good master. Death and destruction was always assured wherever Zaeed went, and that meant fun for HK-47. So it was with Zaeed's well being in mind that the droid made it to the other airlock with the intent of saving the _Ishimura_.

"Exiting zero-gravity. Exiting vacuum."

Second Officer Chic came in over the radio to bother HK-47._ "You've made it! The cannon's a mass driver, so it should punch through any of the asteroids flying at us. Keep an eye on the hull's integrity. Too many of those things get by and we're dead. I think we've almost got the system repaired. Just buy us a little more time!"_

HK-47 took a seat in the turret, noting the hull integrity was already down to eighty-five percent. Almost as soon as he sat down, a group of asteroids started to come into view.

HK-47 started shooting. Every single shot was calm, precise and flawless. Every shot destroyed an asteroid. Shooting a few rocks floating around in space was far beneath HK-47's abilities. The droid couldn't help but think that most of the organics that were currently onboard the _Ishimura_ (excluding Zaeed) wouldn't have been able to handle this assignment without great difficulty.

"_We've almost got this thing fixed! Just a little longer!"_

HK-47 kept up the vigorous pace. More asteroids seemed to be coming in than before, as if they were angry that they were being denied the chance to assault the _Ishimura_.

"Automated Tracking System enabled," the VI stated.

"_Nice shooting, HK-47. Auto targeting is now online and clearing a path to safe orbit. Get back to the bridge."_

Everything went as expected. As HK-47 got out of his seat he noticed the ship's auto targeting system was less accurate than he was. Go figure. He was thousands of years older than the _Ishimura_ (and not even in his prime anymore) yet he was still superior.

When the droid went to cross over the hull of the ship again a few of the legless tailed necromorphs barred his way. He was easily able to blast them apart with his rifle. HK-47 had noticed from the large fight on the bridge that several weapons were very ineffective against the aliens yet his assassin blaster rifle worked quite well.

Once the droid had gone through the airlock to reunite with Zaeed and Lena a new transmission came in.

"_Wait, you're not gonna believe this. Oxygen levels are falling."_ Kendra came in over the comm. _"Something's poisoning hydroponics air production, and whatever it is, it's filling the deck up with that organic stuff. We're not going to have any air to breathe soon. But if I understand these lab reports correctly, I think I can make a poison to destroy it. We need to send a team over to the medical deck. It should have everything we need."_

"_Will this never end?"_ Hammond complained. _"Everyone get back to the bridge and we'll figure out which squads we're sending where."_

* * *

As Zaeed, HK-47 and Lena'Xel made it back to the bridge they found they had walked in on the end of a fight. Several leapers had struck the bridge but had been exterminated, though not before killing a few more of the nameless redshirts that composed the bridge crew.

Chic had noticed that they were starting to run out of people. It would be harder to keep the _Ishimura_ running but given that the engines and the ADS was working again now their chances seemed better than before. The Second Officer of the _Ishimura_ did notice that those still alive were individuals who could fight, himself included since he still had his pistol. But Chic was no soldier and worried that he might be next on the chopping block if they didn't escape the planet cracker soon.

Everyone was now arguing over whom to send where. The bounty hunters and the quarians voiced the exact same concerns that they had about one another before they had gone about fixing the ADS.

Ultimately it was Hammond who had managed to form squads that would get everyone to shut up.

"Tali, Yayap, Krunch, Zaeed and HK-47 will go to the medical deck," The _Kellion_'s security officer said, "Clarke, Vincent, Chen and I will head to hydroponics to see if we can't slow the problem down long enough to keep us breathing. Kendra, you 4-LOM and the two other quarians are to stay here and help keep the bridge secured."

The quarians and bounty hunters had been separated again to try to ensure one side didn't try to make a break for the _Ebon Hawk_, which incidentally no one was still sure if the ship's engines could handle another hyperspace jump or not. But the freighter would have to wait. If they didn't stop the thing that was poisoning the air they would all be very dead very soon, with the exception of HK-47 and 4-LOM. Even if the _Ishimura_'s air production failed completely the two droids still stood a chance of getting away, though they were both motivated to keep Zaeed alive.


	19. Lethal Devotion

**Chapter 19: Lethal Devotion**

Zaeed's footsteps echoed loudly as he stepped off of the tram. The mercenary didn't give a damn if the hostile aliens heard him or not. HK-47 made quite a bit of noise as his metal feet hit the floor. The servomotors in his legs also made a soft noise whenever the droid was moving. Krunch suffered from the same problem, though his mechanical pants were even louder than the droid's legs. Tali and Yayap were much quieter. It made sense that the quarian could be quiet, even in her suit she was a wispy little thing. Yayap's ability to be stealthy was much more impressive, the unggoy was shorter than the average human but he weighed more. Stealth did not immediately seem necessary as the small tram station was devoid of any enemies.

After all that had happened so far Zaeed concluded that this was a bad job. It wasn't his or his employer's fault; it had been just pure bad luck. With every passing moment it seemed less and less likely that they would run into the Separatist officer they were hired to rescue. Hell, they were having a go of it just trying to keep themselves alive, let alone rescue anyone else. That fact that the skills of his current squad were questionable wasn't helping matters either.

Zaeed knew he could count on HK-47. The two had been through a lot together and the old assassin droid was the only individual Zaeed could trust to survive no matter what mission they undertook.

Tali seemed like the best fighter among the quarians since she was running around actually accomplishing things while the other two had spent a good deal of time laying about the bridge. She was easily the least durable combatant of the entire team since all it would take was one good tear in her suit and the quarian would be done for.

Yayap seemed to at least know how to fight, but Zaeed didn't have much experience with unggoy. Given the color of his armor he at least appeared to be an elite soldier. The grunt had at least managed to stay alive so far so that was a good sign.

Zaeed wasn't sure what to think of Krunch. If the slig was anything like the unggoy was supposed to be then he had a descent chance of survival, especially considering he had a T-1 assault rifle. The T-1 assault rifle was not common in the Galaxy, most of them were on Oddworld or used by the sligs in the droid army. Zaeed had a few encounters with them and had learned that the T-1 was a damn good weapon.

Overall Zaeed considered his and HK-47's chances of survival were still pretty good, he couldn't say the same for the others though. In Zaeed's experience it wasn't uncommon for him and HK-47 to be the only survivors of difficult missions. Though something did seem drastically different about this mission… besides the corpse infecting aliens. Zaeed was so certain he had seen his old buddy Narko earlier. Zaeed knew he was dead and he wasn't one to have mental breakdowns. Something odd was going on. This was going to be bad if Zaeed Massani couldn't trust himself.

"_Shit!"_ Kendra Daniels came in over Tali's omni-tool. _"I can smell the contaminated air from here. It's spreading faster than I expected. I'm trying to isolate it but it's not gonna buy us much time. We have to get that thing off this ship. The chemicals you need are in the chemistry lab. I'll hack the door for you when you get there."_

"Understood." Tali's omni-tool shut off. The moment the glow faded, the area got much darker. There was weak illumination provided by Tali and Yayap's suits, Krunch's visor, and HK-47 photoreceptors. The main source of light not provided by the squad was a nearby store kiosk. The area was rank with the stench of death, yet there were no corpses around.

Yayap went over to the store. "Hey, it looks like someone tried to break into the store. Why didn't we think of that?"

"Because we're a bunch of idiots," Krunch said, "why should we pay for stuff during a crisis like this? Let's loot the store! Anarchy! Chaos! Free stuff! What are we waiting for?"

"Whoever it was didn't get in. Tali, could you hack this for us?"

The quarian went over to the store and her omni-tool lit up for a moment. "I can't. This ship's too old to be compatible with omni-tools."

"Well, now we know why someone was trying to break into this thing. I do feel stupid paying for this stuff at a time like this."

"They look like they tried to smash it open," Krunch observed the damage. "Why don't we just blast it open?"

"That might destroy the contents, and we won't have anything then." The grunt bought some plasma energy packs for his nearly depleted plasma cutter. They could hear the ship's VI talking in the distance.

When the unggoy was done they walked down the shadowy hall. HK-47 had taken point, as the darkness wasn't a hindrance to his photoreceptors. Zaeed went next. Tali went after the mercenary, it was the perfect opportunity for her to blast him in the back with her shotgun but she didn't. Zaeed figured the quarian had either decided to trust him until they were off the _Ishimura_ or she feared retaliation from the slig and unggoy that were walking behind her. If it ever came to confrontation with any of the quarians Zaeed was sure the slig and unggoy would help him out, he was here to rescue them (and their officer) after all. The slig had already once proven that he would do this back on the _Ishimura_'s bridge.

At the end of the hall they had reached a security station hub. The lightning was still incredibly poor and the air was only starting to smell more horrid.

Zaeed wondered if the CEC would reward him for rescuing the few employees left on the _Ishimura_ but ultimately doubted it. There were plenty of corporations in the Galaxy that didn't give a damn if their employees lived or died and the CEC's safety record suggested it was one of them. The mercenary didn't think much of their chances either; most of them had stayed on the bridge the entire time. They wouldn't be able to hide there forever if they wanted to get off this ship and a good deal of the bridge staff had died already.

A voice permeated the poorly lit hub. _"You can't stand in the way of God's plan… the natural order. Are you… are you blind like the rest?"_ It was weird. It sounded like it had come from a speaker system yet also sounded as if whoever was talking was in the room with them. Everyone turned to each other and it was clear that the voice had been heard by everyone and was not just a figment of their imagination.

"Everyone heard that, right? I'm not going crazy, right?"

"We all heard it, Krunch," Yayap nodded.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Zaeed demanded.

Kendra came in over Tali's omni-tool again. _"Looks like someone has reprogrammed the doors on this deck… and recently too. I guess we're not alone. Someone doesn't want you guys on this part of the ship."_

"Could it be that officer of yours?" Tali asked Yayap.

"I don't think so. He could be trying to lock the doors to keep the monsters out but if he knew we were here he wouldn't be trying to keep _us_ out."

"How would he know it's us unless he sees us?" Krunch asked.

"Observation: The hostile aliens have difficulty utilizing doors that are not locked. If the officer has survived this long and has half a functioning brain he would have realized this. There is a ninety-eight percent chance that there is some other party that is specifically trying to impede our progress on this deck."

"Great, that's just what we need. Because dealing with these Flood-wannabes wasn't bad enough."

"Huh?"

Yayap remembered telling Tali about the Flood. But Krunch worked security on Oddworld his whole life it seemed and was apparently not familiar with the Flood even if some Separatists did know of their existence. The unggoy didn't really want to explain the Flood all over again so soon. Perhaps later but not right now. "Never mind."

Tali checked her omni-tool and pointed at the door they needed to take. Once again they were immersed in near total darkness. HK-47 still led the front of the pack.

The silence was broken by two short shrieks. HK-47 had lit up the hall with the red glow from his blaster when the two shadowy figures rounded the corner.

It was a pair of lurkers, as Yayap had so appropriately called them. They did like to lurk around in the dark, yet had a habit of screeching and announcing their presence when they were about to attack. HK-47 riddled the first one with several bolts of red fury before it squealed and died. The second one opened up its back to reveal three long tentacles. Zaeed depressed the trigger on his avenger rifle and clipped the centermost tentacle clean off. HK-47 blasted a second one off and the creature died.

"Observation: The little babies die faster if you aim that their tentacles."

"Good to know," Tali said. In all her years Tali had never expected to hear such a phrase uttered.

The squad faced no other obstacles as they reached the entrance to Imaging Diagnostics. From the sounds that echoed around it was clear that some of the lab equipment was on the fritz. They did some exploring for a bit but found nothing of interest other than a workbench.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks when they saw something large and nasty plastered to the wall. It looked to be a human that had lost its arms and legs. It was just stuck up on the side of the wall, anchored by a crusty snot-like substance.

For a second it seemed the abomination was _sleeping_, but it suddenly sprung to life when they got close enough.

Powerful wails and screams of agony pierced their ears.

"The fuck is that thing?" Krunch asked.

"Kill it!" Zaeed ordered.

Tentacle-like appendages burst forth from the stationary being's bloated gut and gripped at the wall, creating what looking like some sort of sick spider web pattern of pulsating flesh.

The thing moaned as all manner of firearms from the entire squad punctured its swollen body. But the creature didn't die, even though it surely sounded like it wished it was dead. The horrible moans of pain made it seem like part of the human host was still… _human_. Tali and Yayap remembered a similar monstrosity plastered to the wall during their time with Isaac. When Clarke had hit the stationary being with his floodlight the creature had howled like it was in pain and partially retained some of its humanity. The fat being that hung on the wall now seemed very similar in the sense that some part of the human brain might still be human.

Something burst forth from the beast's stomach. It landed on the floor in a sickeningly wet plop. It seemed weird that the wall-mounted monster would shoot out what used to be its internal organs as a means of attack, especially since its aim was way off. And it didn't look like it was shot out with enough force to do anyone any real physical harm anyway. Then it suddenly made sense. The pod-shaped growth on the floor opened up at the top and a long tentacle sprung up into the air. It hung vertically for a second before throwing a barb at HK-47. The projectile did nothing to the droid but the squad had learned how the creature attacked now. Yayap shot the pod's tentacle with his plasma cutter and it died. They were fortunate the attack pod wasn't very durable.

The thing on the wall however was very durable and simply wouldn't die. It was ridiculous the amount of firepower the creature was absorbing. HK-47 managed to blast off one of the tentacles that protruded from the stomach. A moment later and a new tentacle shot out to replace the one the droid had shot off.

Zaeed noticed this immediately. It was the first time they seemed to be doing any damage to the creature. "Shoot the bloody tentacles!"

In seconds several more of the tentacles were forcible detached but more quickly replaced them.

"This is going nowhere!" Krunch complained.

"Which is a good thing!" Yayap added over the roar of screams and blaster fire. "I'd rather more of these things were bolted to the wall!"

"I wish it would die already!" Tali was running low on thermal clips. Too much longer and she'd need to find a weapon off the ship.

A few more of the pod things were ejected from the thing's stomach but they were much easier to kill.

"Enough of this nonsense!" Zaeed tossed one of his inferno grenades. It hit dead center on the creature, igniting the whole thing in flames that resembled hellfire. All of the tentacles burnt to a crisp and fell to the floor.

The fat creature had a convulsion as if it were trying to free itself from the wall. Revolting fluids gushed from its gut. The horrid thing let out one final moan; sounding like it achieved sexual release as it finally died.

"About damn time." Zaeed hoped it wouldn't take an inferno grenade to put one of those things down each time they came across one. He only had so many left and it didn't look like he would be able to refill his supply anytime soon.

"Thing sounded like it was still human." Krunch made sure to give the corpse a wide berth.

"Its suffering is over now," Tali said.

Zaeed and HK-47 were the first to take the nearby elevator up. There wasn't a lot of room so they took it two at a time, with Yayap and Krunch coming up next and Tali riding up by herself last.

When everyone had gotten up to the upper level Kendra chimed in again. _"You're close to the chemistry station. Once you get the chemicals, you're also going to need a DNA sample of the alien tissue. I'll search the records for one."_

"Great, more errands," Krunch muttered.

They took another elevator and rode down in pairs again until everyone was on the same floor. Before trotting onward Yayap grabbed an audio log lying right in the middle of the floor.

"_Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer. I now have a live subject for my study. I'm eager to validate my tissue regeneration theory. Initial restraint was problematic, but now the patient is resting comfortably. He trusts me, Doctor Kyne. He puts his life in my hands! He knows his part in all of this, understands what I'm doing! The forehead has been swabbed clean and marked…"_

"_What are you… what are you doing with that?"_

There were sounds of a drill starting up.

"…_and I am now attempting to create a passage to insert the sample tissue into…"_

"_No! No! Noooooaaahhh!"_

"Do you have to keep playing those awful things?" Tali asked.

"Yes."

"They provide more questions than answers."

"We find enough of them and we may find some answers."

After listening to the log they realized they were right at the entrance to the chemical research lab.

The chemical research lab was poorly lit like every other area on the medical deck had been. It was bathed in a light green light that drew the squad to look over at two huge tanks that held corpses. There was one corpse per tank. The one on the left looked to be a half-chewed on human but the corpse in the tank to the right was clearly one of the alien creatures, and a large one at that.

"Ugly bastards." Zaeed stole a power node from in between the two tanks.

"Five moolah says those things are still alive," Krunch said.

"Shut up." Yayap swatted at the slig.

Tali activated the batch mixer.

"Processing request. Please stand by."

Yayap and Krunch raided the storage bin and two supply crates while the batch mixer did its work.

"Antigen compound completed. Please remove capsule." Tali did as the VI asked and took the chemical capsule.

A human appeared on the opposite side of the windows. "What are you doing?"

"Not dying." Yayap walked over to the window and peered at the human. From the way the human was dressed he looked like one of the _Ishimura_'s medical officers.

"Your fight for survival is admiral but pointless."

"Us not dying _is_ the point," Yayap said, "you want to join us and live?"

"You still insist on going on? It almost makes me think that we had hope, as a species. To see a human working with others so willingly… too little too late."

"What the hell are you going on about?" Zaeed had a bad vibe off this newcomer.

"Am I the only one who sees that we have died out a long time ago? We just haven't accepted it yet."

"Are you crazy?" Krunch asked.

"Reality to human." Yayap tapped at the glass with his knuckle. "Humans grow like weeds on every planet they come across. You're the most numerous species in the whole Galaxy! Your kind are everywhere!"

"Stop running. Stop your struggle. Our future, the future of our species, of all species, ends here. Allow me to introduce you to humanity's child. The children that will replace us." The human stretched out his arms for emphasis. "Our greatest creation."

"I don't know if you've been paying attention but the 'children' on this ship suck." Yayap was referring to the little lurkers that infested the shadows.

"Yeah! They keep trying to kill us!" Krunch added.

The human turned and left.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Krunch went up closer to the window.

There was a subdued thumping noise. Everyone in the room had a good idea what it was. They turned back around to see that the corpse in the right tank had begun thrashing around.

"Of course," Zaeed muttered as he brought up his assault rifle.

The large creature burst through the glass tube. It was similar to a regular slasher, but was taller and had a larger torso and thicker arms. It glared at its prey with dull green eyes.

It didn't get more than a few steps before Yayap took off one of its legs with his plasma cutter. HK-47 took off its left arm with his blaster rifle.

"All too easy," Yayap said. As soon as the unggoy had spoken, the corpse on the floor started to convulse and bleed profusely. An arm and a leg burst forth to replace the ones that had been lost.

"Warning: This alien is capable of regeneration."

"The fucker can grow his arms an' legs back?!" Krunch felt the cold specter of fear take hold of him. He was so used to problems that could be solved with a gun and if a gun didn't work, then you needed a bigger one. But they didn't have much else, and they were trapped in with this… _thing_ that could regenerate lost limbs!

They shot the monster up again and just like last time, it started regrowing its lost limbs again. It reminded them of the fat creature that was stuck to the wall. That thing had regenerated its lost tentacles. But this thing was much worse. It wasn't stuck on the wall. There was nothing keeping it from chasing them all over the ship until it caught them!

Kendra came in over Tali's omni-tool. _"You can't kill it! It's just going to keep regenerating! Get out of there! Run!"_

"We would if the door wasn't locked!" The quarian answered.

"_There, it's open! Go!"_

Krunch was the first out the door. He wanted nothing to do with an enemy he couldn't kill. Yayap was next. Tali hit the thing with a stasis blast before going out the door. Zaeed and HK-47 followed.

The door closed behind them but they weren't sure if that would be enough. The aliens had trouble with doors but the regenerating creature would probably use the vents like the others did.

The squad was quick to backtrack. They had what they had come for and there was no need to linger around the chemical lab any longer.

When they got back down to Imaging Diagnostics they encountered a group of swarmers. It was a nice change of pace to fight such frail enemies, especially since the last couple ones had been so adamant about not dying. It was still a challenge as they made up for their feebleness with sheer numbers.

"_Is anyone there? Repeat! Come in Kendra… Tali, is anyone there?"_ Hammond had chimed in.

"_Hammond! What's wrong? What's going on?"_ Kendra asked. Everyone listened to the conversation over Tali's omni-tool.

"_We've reached hydroponics. It's bad down here, really bad! We can barely breathe! That organic matter is growing everywhere! My eyes are stinging… must be seeing things…"_

"_Hammond? Hammond, answer me! Damn it!"_

"What now?" Tali asked.

"_I'm going to send one of the quarians and the bounty hunter droid over to hydroponics to help them out."_

"Got it."

They were set upon a second group of swarmers. Even if they were small and weak they took up precious ammo trying to kill them. They were getting on Tali's nerves more than anyone else. She really didn't want to waste her shotgun and her pistol wasn't nearly as good as the others' weaponry.

* * *

Besides the two swarmer encounters, they made it back to the security station hub without further problems. For the moment it seemed they were clear of the regenerating monster though there was some stomping around and growling heard on the floor above them. They weren't attacked but it seemed like they were being hunted.

"_Now you need to find a DNA sample of the growth. According to lab records, there's an inert sample stored in the ICU. A Dr. Mercer was apparently doing intensive research on it. I've been trying to get a hold of Hammond's group but all I'm getting is static."_

"That and Isaac may just be not willing to speak," Yayap joked.

"What is with that human?" Krunch asked.

"He doesn't say much," Tali answered.

"He doesn't say anything," Yayap corrected. The special ops grunt thought the human engineer was just plain weird. Unggoy were very social beings and working with one so individualistic to the point where they wouldn't even talk was disturbing. More than once Yayap had thought that there was a possibility that Isaac Clarke was actually a Flood hiding in an engineering RIG. The Flood could operate weapons and machinery and so theoretically could pass off as a non-Flooded individual if they were completely encased in armor at all times… like Isaac was. It was a stretch but Yayap didn't rule out the possibility that Clarke might try to attack them at some point.

The door to the clinic was barricaded. It was a simple matter for Yayap to cut through the barrier with his plasma cutter. Once he was done he went over to the store and bought more ammo. "Too bad these stores don't sell thermal clips."

"They should." Tali crossed her arms. It was just her luck. Thermal clips were the most common ammo type in the Galaxy yet there were none to be found on this particular ship. It would have been understandable, given that it was a civilian mining ship, but the stores offered pulse rounds for pulse rifles so there really wasn't much of an excuse for not having thermal clips stocked at the stores.

Ready to tackle the next challenge (hoping their next enemy wasn't a fan of regeneration) they walked through the ruined barricade and through the doors.

A video log lying on the floor welcomed them to the new area.

"_This is Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan, transmitting ship wide. We need more help. We don't have the resources to deal with this many cases. Nobody will tell us what's happening! These wounds… we're not equipped to deal with this many…"_

There was screaming in the background.

"_God… get him to the table! Hold him! Nurse, you hold him down! Christ! End recording!"_

"Christ?" Krunch asked.

"Some deity from an earther religion… I think," Yayap answered, "I heard humans make similar exclamations when I fought them during the Covenant-Citadel War."

"That right?" Krunch looked over at Zaeed.

"We have more important things to worry about than your curiosity. Focus on the mission or you'll end up a corpse."

"Alright alright." The slig's mask made a mechanical noise. Krunch didn't see the harm in some small talk. It helped ease the stress of their very serious situation. Zaeed seemed to disagree though.

A long, mostly clean hallway was completely devoid of enemies and they made their way to their destination without incident.

They made it into the clinic waiting room—only to find the human survivor from earlier behind one of the clinic's windows.

"You again," Krunch hissed.

"Your persistence surprises me."

"_Your_ persistence surprises me!" Yayap retorted, "what's your deal, huh? Why are you doing this?"

"You keep fighting… holding on to your final breath, you all claw your way along. You hold onto what was once your world. But now, it belongs to the children. Be glad of the knowledge that your death… will bring their birth! Listen! Can you hear it? It is coming. Say your prayers." The human seemed to be the odd combination of scientist and religious fanatic.

"You science bitch!" Krunch fired a few shots at the window as the human turned and casually walked away. The window held together.

"Observation: It is unusual that the hostile alien life forms have not yet been able to kill that human."

"Yeah," Krunch agreed, "he doesn't even have a weapon! I call slog shit on that!"

"Maybe he's controlling them?" Yayap wondered. "Could he be the one behind this outbreak?"

"I doubt it," Tali said.

Yayap felt something was off. "He's avoiding the monsters somehow!"

Arguing over how the human was casually strolling about the ship wasn't getting them anywhere. They went through the door into the emergency room. The place was a bloody mess, and that was saying something considering a good many places on the _Ishimura_ were fucked up.

The sightseeing was cut short as the regenerating slasher appeared with a trio of female slashers and a lurker to support it.

"Son of a bitch! It has help this time!" Yayap waited for the lurker to sprout the tentacles from its back before shooting it.

Tali hit the regenerator with a stasis blast. It wouldn't stop it… nothing seemed to, but slowing it down was a good start.

Krunch sprayed their enemies with a hail of bullets. The slig had wasted a lot of ammo even if he did manage to riddle the slashers with gunfire. Still, he hadn't focused his fire enough to it to snap off any limbs. Fear had made Krunch clumsy. Dealing with an enemy that grew back its limbs was one thing, but now the fucking thing had allies helping it out!

Despite the severity of the situation Tali had restricted herself to using her pistol. That proved to be an enormous mistake as one of the slashers got too close. The slasher reached out with a bladed arm—and was knocked sideways. The arm that threatened to tear Tali in two was now lying on the floor. Tali looked to see that it was Zaeed that had saved her. His omni-tool was glowing… no that wasn't right. He had used it to slice off the slasher's arm. It was an omni-blade. Omni-blades were uncommon, though it made sense that someone of Zaeed's caliber owned one.

"Thanks."

"You owe me one, quarian."

Yayap had to back peddle as he kept shooting the slasher making its way of to him. He had already shot the monster several times but it didn't want to go down. The unggoy decided to turn around and break into a full run. He went around to the opposite side of a stretcher but the slasher followed. The two played chase for a short while until the monster got frustrated and spit a glob of goo at the unggoy. Yayap took it in the shields and was slightly knocked off balance. The grunt retaliated with a few more shots that finally took the slasher out of the fight.

"_Someone keeps shutting down the door protocol. I've bypassed the lock! Go!"_ From her position at the bridge, Kendra was still able to unlock one of the emergency room's doors. Several members of the squad found it annoying that Kendra always seemed to never have to run any errands and just stay on the bridge but she still proved to be helpful.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Krunch had kicked his mechanical pants into overdrive and rushed to the now-unlocked door.

They all made it through the unlocked door. Yayap turned to see the regenerator disappear through a vent before the door closed shut. "The damn thing will be following us."

"Hunting us," Zaeed corrected.

"I hate being prey," Krunch said.

"Let's hope we don't see… the Hunter again."

"Don't call it that, Tali."

"What, Yayap? You've been giving these things nicknames since we got on this ship."

"People already call mgalekgolo 'hunters.' We're gonna have overlap."

"Who cares?"

"Does it really matter?" Krunch asked.

"All of you shut the fuck up!" Zaeed snapped. The mercenary was starting to understand that this squad was having trouble concentrating. He should have known they were worthless.

As they made their way towards the end of the corridor they came across a sight they were not happy to see—another of the fat humans was plastered to the wall.

"Not this shit again. HK, torch the fucker."

"Acknowledgement: Yes Master." The droid's wrist flamethrower fried the bloated monster and all its tentacles fell off, signaling its willingness to let out a disturbing moan and die.

Zaeed had reached his limit with the foul air. It would have been stupid to survive the monsters only to suffocate to death. He grabbed his breather mask clipped to his belt and put it on. The mask was heavily used and didn't look like much but it was reliable and did the job.

They heard crying. "Over there!" Krunch pointed to the right. They all rushed over and found a hysterical woman at the end of the corridor. She was standing over what once was a human corpse on a bed, though now it was mostly tiny bits of meat, bone and blood. The frenzied woman looked like a member of the medical staff.

"Hey! You okay?" Yayap asked.

The woman didn't answer. She just kept staring off at the wall with a horrified expression on her face.

"C'mon. You can come with us. We're going to get off this ship," Tali offered.

"She's gone," Zaeed's voice sounded grim even coming from his breather mask. "No point in wasting any more time. We need to keep moving."

"It's amazing she hasn't been killed," Yayap noted, "there was that monster right over there at the other end of the hall."

"What? The monster that was stuck on the wall?" Tali chided.

"Point taken. But there are plenty of mobile ones lurking around. Why do they keep coming after us when there is still easier prey around?"

"Last chance, lady," Krunch said, "you can come with us or stay here but we can't waste time doing nothing."

The _Ishimura_ survivor still failed to even acknowledge their existence.

"Have it your way." Krunch was the first to walk away.

"We're really going to leave her?" Tali asked.

"Yes," Zaeed said.

They left the woman and continued on to the intensive care unit and found an office labeled as belonging to a Dr. Mercer.

Dr. Mercer's office was a nightmare. Aside from the dim lighting, which had become commonplace and the _Ishimura_, the walls were covered in some sort of symbols. There were dismembered human heads kept on the shelves, some but not all of them were kept in jars.

Yayap picked up an audio log on the floor and played it.

"_Personal log, Doctor Challus Mercer. The specimen continues to respond well to my experiments. Its cellular fortitude, not to mention elasticity, is remarkable. Doctor Kyne, I am sure, would disapprove. But I do not anticipate that issue, as the good doctor is busying himself with the Marker… as if that matters now. He has also succumbed to the same dementia that afflicted the colony. Only yesterday he told me he had spoken to his wife… but Amelia Kyne has been dead for some years."_

There was a growling in the background, it sounded like the regenerating necromorph they had recently become acquainted with.

"_My subject grows restless. Patience. Your time is soon. Very soon."_

"So, he _is_ a doctor," Yayap said. The voice from the audio log matched the human's they had seen. There was no mistaking that Dr. Challus Mercer was the one trying to get them killed.

"I'm gonna shoot that science bitch the next time he shows his face," Krunch grumbled.

"You got something against scientists?" Tali asked the slig.

"The ones that try to kill me? Yes. He thinks he's so smart." Krunch's mask made a mechanical noise. "We'll see how smart he is when he's dead."

Zaeed had taken note of the part of the log that mentioned a Dr. Kyne talking to his dead wife. Zaeed had seen his dead buddy Narko… The veteran mercenary didn't like the thought that he might be succumbing to dementia. He didn't speak of word of it to his squadmates.

HK-47 found a stasis module among the heads floating in the jars and integrated it into the empty weapon slot in his left forearm.

"Commentary: Perhaps Dr. Mercer has countered the alien threat using a stasis module. It would explain the meatbag's lack of a visibly noticeable weapon."

"The droid has a point," Tali admitted.

"What's it matter?" Krunch asked.

"We should be aware of what he can do if it ever comes to a shootout with him," Yayap said.

"As long as he doesn't have a gun we have the advantage," Krunch said.

Tali activated the batch mixer and grabbed the DNA sample.

"_This has gone on far enough. Accept your part in god's plan! Embrace your own extinction!"_ Mercer came in over the comm. Suddenly the atmosphere was vented out.

"Warning," the ship's VI announced. Krunch groaned. The slig was tired of hearing that voice. "Life support system failure on medical deck. Please evacuate immediately."

Zaeed Massani had been incredibly lucky that he had already decided to don his breather mask. Tali was perpetually confined to her suit and Yayap and Krunch never took their masks off. Being a droid, HK-47 had nothing to worry about. Doctor Mercer's little trap had failed miserably.

"_Who the hell was that?"_ Kendra came in over the comm.

"An asshole who's trying to kill us," Krunch answered.

"_He's decompressed the entire deck and I'm being locked out of those systems! All air has been vented into space. You should be able to bring it back online from the security station, but you don't have much time!"_

Zaeed's breather mask only had a few minutes worth of air on its own, and he informed the others of its limitations. Krunch's mask likewise had a very limited oxygen supply. Yayap supply of methane would run out eventually since there was no longer any oxygen it could convert. Tali had a better supply than the others but HK-47 took the gold medal as he could survive in the vacuum in perpetuity. The group had to move fast.

They rushed back out the hall they had come. Tali took only a brief moment to see that the woman that had left behind was now dead. After everything the poor woman had been killed by another human rather than one of the monsters.

Their running was cut short when it looked like the floor ahead of them was moving. But it wasn't the floor; it was a huge wave of swarmers. They didn't have time to play with the little strips of mobile flesh but there were too many that they couldn't simply run around them. Zaeed and HK-47 killed them with their rifles; they did have the best weapons suited for killing large amounts of weak enemies. The whole encounter wasted a good ten seconds.

When they made it back to the emergency room the Hunter was still there despite the fact that Yayap had seen it leave in a vent when they first fled the emergency room. The Hunter had two fat slashers nearby to help it out. Tali hit the Hunter with another stasis blast while Zaeed knocked back the two bloated slashers with a concussive shot from his assault rifle. The group ran past the enemies rather than try to finish them off.

A lurker crawled out of a whole in front of Zaeed as they ran through was would have been an empty hallway. He didn't have time for the creature to open up its back and reveal its weak point. Zaeed merely ran past. The lurker opened up its back and its tentacles shot out, only to get blasted by HK-47. Taking time to stop and shoot put the droid at the back of the pack but the group as a whole wasn't slowed down by the little incident.

Zaeed was the first to get back to the security station hub but it was Tali who got to the computer console and was able to restore life support. It was a simple process for the quarian and it only took a few seconds. There was a sharp hiss as air returned back to the medical deck. Even if they could breathe again Zaeed opted to keep his breather mask on, no need to risk death in case Mercer was unoriginal enough to try the same trick again—that and the fact that the air was still really foul.

"_You've got everything you need to make the poison. Now get back to the chemistry lab."_

Hammond came in over the radio again. _"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast… we can hardly breathe in here…"_

"_You're cutting out, Hammond! I'm going to try to switch over… Shit! I lost his signal! I'll continue scanning for their location. You guys have to get that compound mixed."_

* * *

They were halfway back to the chemistry lab before being impeded by a large group of swarmers.

"We keep seeing these little ones everywhere now. Maybe we've killed most of the human-sized ones?" Krunch said.

"Doubt it," Zaeed said, "this is a big ship. Which means it has a big crew. There should be lots of bodies for these aliens to infect."

Kendra Daniels chimed in again as they killed the little creatures. _"I've got more intel on the atmosphere. A survivor's report says that a massive creature entered the hydroponics deck from outside the ship. That's when the air quality began degrading. The survivor called it… the Leviathan."_

"That doesn't sound ominous at _all_," Yayap's voice was laced with weapons-grade sarcasm that was strong enough to kill a swarmer.

* * *

They made it all the way back to the chemistry lab and used the batch mixer with the poison and DNA they had collected. Krunch didn't particularly like being in the room again, this was the place that they first met the Hunter after all. The other corpse was still in its tube; it didn't look like it was going to spring alive anytime soon. It was likely a failed experiment.

"Processing request. Please stand by. Final mixing complete. Please remove the capsule."

Tali grabbed the final product.

"_Let's hope that poison works. Head back to the tram station and get up to hydroponics as fast as you can. Still no response from Hammond's team so be careful. There's no telling how contaminated that deck is."_

Mercer had cut in after Kendra's transmission._ "I'm beginning to truly admire your spirit, misplaced as it may be. I think… you should see… the whole plan. You should not spurn the hive mind's offerings. You deserve to witness that, at least."_

As soon as Mercer was done speaking a door that was previously locked had unlocked. It was rather odd timing that the door unlocked the second they had heard Mercer talk. It was almost as if Mercer were trying to lure them in…

It was the door that led to the area that Mercer had disappeared into the first time they saw the crazed doctor. It was a short walk down a hall before they found several lockers on their left. Opening them revealed tons of credits and ammo for Yayap's plasma cutter.

Right next to the long row of lockers was the door to the cryogenics lab. Krunch was the first to go through. He had a feeling he'd see Mercer again and wanted the chance to be the one to shoot him.

The cryogenics lab was a horror show. Several slashers were entombed in cryo pods.

"What's going on here?" Zaeed wondered aloud as he peered closely at one of the frozen tubes. "Who did this?"

"Take a guess," Yayap said.

"Conclusion: Dr. Mercer seems to the most likely culprit behind this. Under different circumstances I would applaud his ability to capture prey."

"But how did he manage to get them frozen in the first place?" Tali asked.

"There!" Krunch rushed over when he saw Mercer. The doctor was once again hiding behind of wall of protective glass. The slig's gut feeling had been right, they did run into Mercer again.

"Perhaps now you will understand. The work I have done must continue… will continue. I, Dr. Challus Mercer, shall serve as the catalyst to the salvation of the human species! Of all species! These specimens will return to Earth with me. I will spread their divine glory across the entire planet… and beyond! I'll leave you with my creation. Embrace the inevitable."

As soon as the doctor's rant was over the Hunter crawled out of a floor vent.

"What, does he have that thing on an invisible leash or something?" Krunch asked. It certainly seemed that the Hunter followed wherever Mercer went but it didn't make sense how the monster would hold any loyalty to the insane doctor.

"Get back!" Yayap yelled.

"We can't kill this thing!" Tali let loose her combat drone. Several lurkers started climbing down from the rafters above.

"Maybe we can…" Zaeed had noticed the cryo-chamber in the center of the room. "Over here you ugly son of a bitch!" Zaeed fired at the Hunter to get its attention.

The Hunter chased after the human. Zaeed went right into the cryo-chamber. The Hunter still followed. When the large creature was in the chamber Zaeed clipped off one of its legs. "HK, hit it with stasis!"

"Compliance: Yes, Master." The assassin droid made use of his new stasis module. Taking a leg from the Hunter and sticking it in slow motion had bought them some time.

"Where are the controls for the cryo-chamber?"

"I don't know!" Yayap answered as he killed one of the lurkers.

"Over there, I think!" Tali pointed to the control room where Mercer had been.

Zaeed ran up to the ramp and entered the control room. He quickly looked around. He was moving as fast as he could, the stasis effect wouldn't last much longer. In the next second he found the touch screen panel to activate the cryo process. The human quickly fiddled with the computer. The process was so simple almost any fool could have worked the cryo-chamber. It didn't lend itself to put the intelligence of the _Ishimura_'s crew in a positive light.

"Freezing cycle activated."

There was a loud hiss as the cryo-chamber came alive while the Hunter was still inside it.

"Freezing cycle successful. Transporting patient."

The Hunter was placed in a tube like the other frozen specimens.

"Not so tough when you kill it with ice!" Krunch exclaimed. The remainder of the lurkers was quickly killed.

"Hopefully that thing is doomed to be nothing more than an ugly wall decoration," Yayap said.

Kendra came in over Tali's omni-tool again. _"Let's just hope that's the last we see of that… thing. I've managed to override Mercer's lockdown. There's a secondary tram station nearby and you guys can take it to hydroponics. Let's just hope there's enough time."_

They exited through the control room door and it was a wonderfully short walk to the tram station. They had spent more than enough time on the medical deck. They now had the poison, it was a successful mission but Krunch couldn't help but feel cheated that they didn't get the chance to kill Mercer. Maybe they'd run into him again later. In any case the squad was hopeful the air would be breathable again soon and then they would finally be able to focus on actually escaping from the _Ishimura_.

* * *

The cryogenics lab was barren and empty save for the frozen necromorphs. There was a noise and soon Grid and his facehugger companion broke through a vent in the ceiling.

The xenomorph had been stalking the armored human for some time, but broke away when an oversized alien had shown up to chase the shelled human and his allies. So Grid and his hivemate went in search of other prey… and they found it. Grid had very little to work with, one facehugger and no other hivemates. But his patience had paid off; he had finally found a worthy host for his lone facehugger.

The facehugger crawled over to the Hunter's cryotube. It leapt forward, smashing through the glass and grabbed onto the Hunter's face. Still frozen, there was nothing the regenerating necromorph could do to protect itself. Soon Grid would have a powerful new hivemate.

Grid could feel a change in the air. Something was altering the atmosphere and he would have to deal with it if he wanted to continue to survive. And the xenomorphs excelled at surviving, no matter what their enemy was capable of.


End file.
